Inferno: Experiment 666
by Inferno19900828
Summary: Experiment 666 is designed to be an invincible fighting machine, but when he's separated from Jumba, he lands in Watseka, Illinois; meeting his best friend and his true love there. In Watseka, 666 will have to fight Hamsterviel.
1. Activation

Inferno: Experiment 666

By: Inferno19900828

Finished on Sunday, December 7, 2014 at 02:09:12 Central Standard Time

Chapter One: Activation

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**…Watseka, Illinois…Thursday, August 28, 2008…**

A class of high school physical education students was outside on the football field playing. Out of nowhere, a small, blue ball lands next to one of them. The student notices it, picks it up, and puts it in his pocket. Later, and back inside the school, the young man inspects his find. On the top hemisphere, written in large bold type, were the digits 6-6-6. He has no idea what he's just found and decides to investigate it further when he gets home. After six more hours of waiting, the school day ends. When the young man gets home, he sees his father off to work. A few hours later, he takes the ball outside, where he knows that there's a lot of free, open space. Thinking it's just a numbered bouncy ball, he bounces it right into a puddle of water. A bright yellow halo surrounds it; then, in a flash, it is replaced by a creature.

This creature had midnight-black fur, was about half as tall as he was, and had a pissed-off look on its face. He thought it was a dog until it _said_, in perfect English, "Who are you?"

"I am Earl Jones," the young man said, before asking the creature, "Who are you?"

"I am Experiment 666," the creature responded.

Earl then plainly stated, "Experiment 666 just ain't gonna cut it around here. I'll call you _Inferno._"

Experiment 666, now named Inferno was confused. Earl had just told him that his number wouldn't be good enough to go by in this place. When he inquired about it, Earl simply told him that everyone around here had a name; and those who didn't were regarded as "fuckin' freaks." Inferno told him that he didn't want to be called a fuckin' freak, and thanked Earl for the name. He told Earl that he felt the name fit him well.

Later, Earl took Inferno on a tour of the city of Watseka. The small, black genetic experiment thought the small town was boring. When he voiced his feelings, Earl simply said, "This is what I've lived with for the past twelve years."

Inferno responded to that with, "_Twelve years?!_"

"Yep," said Earl.

Inferno inquired of Earl, "What the fuck do you guys do around here?"

With pride in his voice, Earl replied, "We get fucked up every chance we get."

Curious as to what this meant, Inferno asked, "What is this _fucked up_?"

"_Fucked up_ is the local vernacular slang term for getting drunk. It's also used to refer to getting high on illegal drugs," Earl replied.

Inferno couldn't help himself anymore; and inquired of Earl, "Do you have anything at your home that will get us fucked up?"

"I've got some alcohol in my fridge," Earl replied.

"Well," Inferno began, "Do you want to get fucked up right now?"

"No," replied Earl, "I've gotta go to school tomorrow. Back to that accursed place where I found your ball today."

Confused as to what he meant, Inferno asked Earl, "My ball?"

"The ball that you magically appeared from earlier," Earl replied.

"I think it's time you learned what I really am," Inferno said.

Earl was confused. As he listened, Inferno explained to him that he was really an alien genetic experiment. He explained that he was bulletproof, fireproof, and could think _way_ faster than anyone else. He said that his mind worked faster than a computer, and that he could do the most advanced calculus problem in about five seconds. He explained that he could see in the dark and lift objects forty thousand times his own size. His only weakness, he said, was that he could not swim, due to his large molecular density. After Inferno's lengthy explanation, Earl remarked, "Wow. You're the coolest thing I've ever heard of."

Inferno, impressed with Earl's comment, remarked, "I've got no use for my destructive nature. I've got a new friend in you."

Soon, the duo returned to Earl's house. They sat down in front of the television and watched the Weather Channel for three hours. Then, they got to work on Earl's chemistry homework. With Inferno's help, Earl finished his chemistry and algebra homework in about twelve seconds. After they finished, they watched more television until it was time for bed. The duo had a long day to prepare for, so they went to bed.

* * *

**Author's Note: **

In this story, I've taken several creative liberties.

First, I've only given a few of Inferno's experimental powers in this chapter. Those that I've explicitly given in this chapter are only the tip of the iceberg, with the rest of his powers manifesting themselves during the later chapters, and in particular, after chapter three.

Second, with this story, I've created a universe in which the State of Illinois legalizes the recreational use of marijuana for those eighteen years of age and older. In this story, the characters who actively smoke marijuana _all_ fit this criteria. Since Inferno is an experiment, he fits this criteria by default, as is explained in chapter four.

Third, there's the issue, which comes up in chapters nineteen and twenty, of Leroy and Hamsterviel. I've decided to free Leroy, who already smokes marijuana there in the prison asteroid. He will live with Earl and Inferno. The details of how and why I've decided to do this will be explained in chapter twenty.

Finally, I've decided to go out on a limb here and make it so that cigarettes don't cause any permanent harm to the experiments. This idea first comes up in Chapter Seven. To make this work, however, I had to do some major editing to chapter three, where I'd originally written that even smoking one cigarette would be _fatal_ to Inferno. I took this part out to make chapter seven make a little more sense.

* * *

**Disclaimer:**

Inferno and Earl are my own characters, as are my visions of the various experiments that come to Watseka in later chapters, starting with Floods (experiment 4-9-8), who shows up in chapter fourteen. All other humans in this story are my own creations. _**Lilo and Stitch are the intellectual property of the Walt Disney Studios, and my use of them is not for any monetary gain.**_


	2. First Day in Watseka

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Two: First Day in Watseka

Finished on Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 17:34:45 Central Daylight Time

* * *

…**Earl's house…Friday, August 29, 2008…**

At six o'clock the next morning, Earl woke up to find that his father was home and had already met Inferno. He greeted his father and Inferno, who both acknowledged his presence. The three then began discussing their plans for the day. Earl's father was not pissed off at him, like he thought he would be when he found out about Inferno. In fact, the elder human thought Inferno was pretty cool.

After breakfast, Earl left for school, while Inferno stayed there and surfed the web. His first stop was the website of the National Weather Service's Chicago Forecast Office. After reading sixty-five webpages there, he went to the next website Earl had shown him; that of the National Hurricane Center. Three minutes later, he'd memorized the entire website! He then curled up at the foot of Earl's bed and fell asleep.

…**At Watseka High School…**

From the moment Earl walked in the door, he knew that he would be bored out of his mind. As he was walking to his locker, he turned his cell phone off. When he opened his locker, he gently placed his cell phone on the top shelf. Then, he bent down and grabbed his textbook and his notebook for English IV; his first class of the day. He then shut his locker and walked to the class, right across the hall.

Once inside the room, one of his classmates says to him, "What's up? Word on the street is that _you_ found an alien during gym class yesterday."

Earl looked at him and replied, "It's true; although I must ask _where_ you heard that."

"My younger brother was out with some of his friends last night and saw the two of you hanging out at Town Center Square," his classmate said.

"Whatever," Earl said.

Then, at eight-thirteen, the teacher walked in and the class began. Earl thought the teacher's monotone ramblings would put him to sleep within the first two minutes of the class, but he stayed awake for the entire period. At nine-oh-three, the bell rang and Earl went back to his locker. When he got there, he placed his books back. Then, he walked to the gym for his next class.

…**Back at Earl's House…Half-an-hour later…**

For the most part, things were pretty quiet during the previous half-hour. At around nine-thirty, Inferno woke up from his nap and resumed surfing the internet. He didn't understand some of the monotone political ramblings on the CNN website, so he logged off of it. Later, he found his way back to the National Weather Service website, memorizing the entire thing in roughly four seconds.

…**Watseka High School…Third Period…**

After an incredibly boring gym class, Earl walked to his locker to get his book and notes for his algebra class. Walking into the room, the first thing he saw was his teacher handing out some papers. He took one and read it. The fears that he'd expressed to Inferno earlier that morning were confirmed; his teacher was giving the class a quiz. Remembering what Inferno had taught him the night before, he carefully completed each of the seventeen problems on the quiz, before handing it back to his teacher. He then sat back down in his seat and read his notes. He'd discovered that he might have missed one or two points on the first problem, because he'd dropped a negative sign. He thought to himself, _"This teacher would be a total retard if he failed me for one stupid little negative sign."_ The teacher then began the lecture, over the real number system. He explained what real numbers were, then began to explain the different types of them. There are Natural numbers, Whole numbers, Integers, Rational numbers, and Irrational numbers. Then, as he explained, there is a second type of numbers, called the Complex numbers, which includes Imaginary numbers and Real numbers. After fifteen or twenty minutes of sitting through this, the bell rang.

…**Fourth Period…**

After having sat there in Room one-four-six, bored out of his mind, Earl walked back to his locker, dropping off his algebra stuff and grabbing his Spanish stuff. Walking into the room at roughly eleven-oh-one, he sat down and waited for his instructor to begin the lecture. The teacher, a thirty-something, blond woman, began the class by saying, "¡Hola! "¿Cómo estás?"

The entire class responded, in unison, with "Bien, ¿Y tú?"

"Estoy bien," she replied.

She then began the lecture, which lasted for another forty-five minutes, then the bell rang. Earl went back to his locker to grab a few books before heading off to study hall.

…**Back at Earl's house…**

Inferno sat in front of Earl's computer, confused. He had just memorized all of the websites that Earl had shown him the night before, and now, he had absolutely nothing to do. A few minutes later, he decided to just go back to the National Hurricane Center website, in the hopes of finding some satellite images to look at. He finds the link to the images and looks for a currently active storm. He could choose from several different ones; so he clicked on the link called "Gustav." The storm looked rather un-impressive to him, as it was only a tropical storm at this time. He read the forecast, which called for Gustav to become a category two hurricane. Of course, being new to this kind of thing, he had absolutely no idea what that meant. After five more minutes of research, he logged off and flipped on the television. By this point, he was bored out of his mind; and so he went outside to mess around for a while. After twenty-five minutes of this, he went back inside, falling asleep in the middle of the dining room floor. After realizing this, he got up, and got into Earl's bed, falling sound asleep at its foot, just as he had done a few hours earlier.

…**Watseka High School…Sixth and Seventh Periods…**

Back at the high school, Earl was standing at his locker, getting his shit together for sixth period. It was, by far, Earl's least favorite class of the day, Chemistry! After grabbing his book and notes, he began to walk up the stairs towards his class. He shuddered to think what Mr. Davidson had in store for him that day. When he arrived at the door to room two-one-three, he was shocked to find the room as quiet as could be. His teacher handed him a paper with some chemistry formulas on it, then told him to sit down. The lecture he endured over the next thirty-five minutes was the most boring thing he had ever heard in his life. Then, it dawned on him…_he had to endure another nine months of this._ During the lecture, Mr. Davidson had managed to put Earl to sleep fourteen or fifteen times. This was nothing new, as the class was, as Earl had told Inferno the night before, "really fucking boring." After it was all over, Earl woke up when the bell rang for seventh period.

After leaving chemistry, Earl walked back to his locker to grab his things for seventh period. This class, which was Earl's favorite, was web page design. After grabbing his things, he only had to walk a few feet to reach the door to room one-five-three. When he entered the room, he instinctually went to a computer, logged in; and almost without second thought, entered the National Hurricane Center's website into the computer. When the homepage showed up, he'd discovered that a new tropical depression had formed. _"I wonder if Inferno's seen this yet,"_ he thought to himself. At two-thirteen, the teacher walked into the room, beginning the lecture on some really basic HTML code. During this lecture, she discussed what HTML tags were and how they worked to create a new web site. After twenty minutes of discussion, she set the students loose to practice with the tags they had just learned. Fifteen minutes later, the final bell rang, and Earl left the room. He went back to his locker, grabbed his phone and schoolbooks, and left the campus.

…**The trip home…**

Earl had walked the streets of Watseka's southeast side for a few minutes, zigzagging through the maze of streets that led him from the school to his house. At this point, he was about two blocks from his house. He'd lit a cigarette, smoking it as he walked. As he approached the house, he put out the almost-finished cigarette.

…**Earl's house…Five minutes later…**

As he walked in the door, his father greeted him, asking him how his day was. He told his father that the day was rather boring, and then he went into his bedroom. Placing his bag on the floor outside his bedroom door, he gently opened the door, careful not to wake Inferno if he was napping. Looking inside, he saw Inferno curled up at the foot of his bed. Instantly, he grabbed his phone, taking a picture of the cute scene that laid out before him. After taking the picture, he gently shook Inferno, waking him. Inferno looked up, and seeing Earl, said, "Hey, dude; how was _your_ day?"

"Ugh," Earl replied.

"That bad, huh?"

"Yeah, it sucked big time," Earl said.

A few more minutes of back-and-forth between the two friends ensued, ending with Earl's father calling the two to dinner. After eating, Earl and Inferno went back into Earl's bedroom, to begin their work on Earl's chemistry homework.

…**Five minutes later… **

Earl sat down in the center of his bed, spreading out his chemistry stuff. He really did not want to be doing this stuff, but Inferno told him that if they worked together, they would have it done in no time. So, the two of them sat down and balanced three of the most complicated chemical equations you could ever imagine in about half-an-hour. They finished the rest of the assignment in about another twenty minutes. Then, Inferno decided that they should take a break before moving on to Earl's algebra homework.

During this time, Earl logged on to the National Hurricane Center website, showing Inferno the new tropical depression that he'd discovered earlier in the day. He asked Inferno if he'd seen it yet; to which the alien said no. Inferno read _all four_ advisory texts in about five seconds. He then decided that he wanted to work on algebra, so Earl logged off of the computer.

…**Two hours later…**

Sitting back down in the center of his bed, Earl opened his algebra book, flipping to the correct page in the process. He then pulled out two pencils and his notebook, tearing out three sheets for Inferno to sit and do the problems for himself. He then began to write. Finishing the first ten problems in five minutes, he looked up from his work to see that Inferno had the _entire_ assignment done. He found Inferno on the computer tracking the new tropical depression. Ten minutes later, Earl was finished with his homework, so he joined Inferno at the computer. After about fifteen or twenty minutes of looking at different tropical cyclones online, the two friends flipped on the television. Since it was Friday night, there wasn't anything particularly interesting to watch, so Earl flipped on CNN. The two watched this for three or four hours, during which time, Earl's father came in, announcing that he was going to bed. After giving him a hug good-night, Earl returned to his bed, continuing to watch TV. Five hours later, both Earl and Inferno got tired and went to sleep.


	3. Fifth Day in Watseka

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Three: Fifth Day in Watseka

Finished on Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 17:34:45 Central Daylight Time

* * *

**...Tuesday, September 2, 2008…Before Earl arrives at school**

Earl woke up at seven-thirty in the morning for school. He was not excited to go there at all. He ate his breakfast, then told his father goodbye. Before leaving, he stopped in his room to grab his book bag. Before closing the door, he told Inferno goodbye. He then walked out of the house and down the block to the bus stop. When he arrived, he saw one of his friends waiting there. He stopped and said, "Hey, Andy, what's up?"

"Not much, dude," was the reply.

"Did you do the algebra homework over the weekend?"

"No," Andy replied, "I was too busy getting fucked up. Did _you_ do it?"

"Yeah. It took me fifteen minutes to finish the whole goddamn thing," Earl replied.

Andy was quick to change the subject when he said, "Word on the street says that you found an alien during gym class last week."

"Yeah, I did. His name's Inferno and he's pretty cool."

"Inferno, huh; what can he do?"

"He didn't say," Earl lied, "so I don't know."

"If he didn't say, then he's not a very good friend," Andy said, rather sarcastically.

"Hey, what the fuck's your major malfunction," Earl snapped back.

Andy plainly stated, "My problem is with the fact that you're friends with someone that you don't know jack shit about."

"Well, would you like to meet him," Earl asked, rather offended.

"Yeah, I suppose I would. I'd kind of like to get to know him. Also, I think you're right to be upset with my comments. I'm sorry if I offended you."

"How about we meet uptown on Friday night," Earl said.

"Yeah," Andy said, "I could sell you guys some weed."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Earl said, "I'll have to ask Inferno what he thinks of this plan."

"Let me know what he says when I see you here tomorrow," Andy said, "Then, we'll set up the time. Then, you can pass it on to Inferno when you get home tomorrow night."

The two friends then get on the bus, and no further discussion on their plans is made. When Earl gets to school, he goes directly to his locker. There, he drops his phone off, while grabbing all the books he'll need for the whole day. He then goes straight across the hall to his first class.

…**Six Hours later…**

Earl entered room two-two-six and sat down in his seat. When Mr. Davidson walked in, he handed out a sheet of paper for the students to read. Then, as he went into the lecture, Earl fell asleep.

…**Five seconds later…**

Earl was daydreaming about spending time just sitting there and discussing hurricanes with Inferno. He felt that if their friendship was going to develop, he would have to explain his own interests to him in a very practical way.

…_**Earl's dream…sitting in his room…doing homework with Inferno…later that night…**_

I began my conversation with Inferno by saying, "I really want to explain hurricanes to you, but I just don't know how to do it in a way that would make sense to you. What do you recommend I do?"

He just looked at me and shrugged, saying, "I don't know. I personally think that I should do a little more research into them before we get into the details."

_**I then balanced the first of seventeen chemical reactions.**_

Then, after I did the problem, Inferno looked it over, making sure I did it correctly. He then said, pointing to a number in my work, "I think this should be a two."

I then looked where he was pointing and said, "Goddammit," before correcting my mistake.

He looked at me and asked, "What was that for?"

"What?"

"That word you just uttered; why did you say that?"

"Because I knew that I'd fucked the number up, I just didn't see it until you pointed it out. I must thank you for pointing out the mistake. I shudder to think about what would happen if you hadn't."

"Since I don't really know how your chemistry teacher _grades_ your assignments, do you, by chance, have any prior graded assignments that I might be able to look at," Inferno asked, before continuing with, "I kind of want to get a feel for how this teacher grades your work. Doing so might help me help you."

"No. It's only the second week of class," I said, while rifling through my folder.

"Well, if you don't mind, I'd kind of like to take a break now," he said.

"I've only gotten one problem done. We need to get at least five more done before we can even consider taking a break," I replied.

_**I then balanced the second, third, fourth, and fifth chemical reactions.**_

After looking over my work, Inferno said, "These first three are very good, but this last one…"

He then pointed to a number and said, "…I think this should be a two…;" then pointing to another, he said, "…I think that this should be a four."

I corrected the two mistakes that he'd pointed out, before saying, "Thank you, Inferno. Now we can take a break."

_**...End of Earl's dream… sequence will be continued…**_

…**Forty-five minutes later…**

Earl woke up from his daydreaming to find that the bell had rung, releasing him from his boring chemistry class. He quickly wrote down the seventeen homework problems that Mr. Davidson had assigned and grabbed his books, and then left the room. It was a rather short trip to his locker, but when he got there, he placed his chemistry books inside. He then shut the locker and went into his final class of the day.

When he walked into the room, he sat down in the same seat he had during the previous week. He logged into the computer, going straight to the National Hurricane Center's website. He took a quick glance at it, then minimized the window. His teacher, Ms. Hall, then began the lecture, showing the students six more HTML tags, then explaining how to use them. After twenty or twenty-five minutes of lecture and demonstration, she let the students practice working with the new tags. During this time, however, Earl once again began to daydream. He did not, however, slack off. He did the practice work while he was daydreaming.

…_**Earl's second dream…continued from the first…**_

During our break, Inferno and I decided we would talk about getting fucked up. He still had no idea what that meant, nor had he ever done it. I had been high before, so I explained it to him. I told him to memorize what I said, for the day he could try it would be coming very soon.

I began with, "When you get high, you don't feel like doing anything except relaxing. Trust me, I've done it."

"Exactly how does one get high," Inferno asked.

"You have to smoke the substance. The only one I've ever done (or ever care to do) is called _marijuana_."

"Okay. Exactly how do you smoke this _marijuana_?"

"I'll explain it to you. Please listen carefully and memorize what I say. You will need to know this for when you try it."

"Okay," Inferno said.

I began the explanation with, "First, you need to know what kind of supplies you will need to smoke marijuana. First, you need something to smoke it out of. It can be anything, from a simple metal cylinder, like a piece of TV antenna, to something like a glass pipe with a bowl at the end."

"Okay," he said.

"You break up the marijuana into pieces, and then pack it into the smoking apparatus."

"Okay, I think I understand that, in theory."

"Then, you place the smoking apparatus up to your lips."

"All right, that seems pretty self-explanatory."

"Now, this is the really important part. After you light the smoking apparatus, you suck the smoke into your lungs. How much smoke you suck in depends on how long you can suck for. The more smoke you get, the more fucked up you get. Another important thing to know is that you have to hold the smoke in your lungs for as long as you can. It is this that gets you fucked up. The longest I've been able to hold it in is thirty seconds."

"I take it you've done this before."

"Yes, I have. Now, after you suck in the smoke and get fucked up, you put the smoking apparatus down and savor the feeling. When I smoke weed, I feel relaxed, and I really don't want to do anything."

"That sounds intriguing."

"After a few minutes, perhaps an hour, you repeat the process to get fucked up again. That's the ins and outs of smoking weed."

Inferno then asked, "When can I try it?"

…_**End of Earl's second dream…sequence will be continued…**_

**...Five minutes later…**

Earl ended his daydreaming when the final bell rang. He'd logged out of his computer several minutes ago. He grabs up his books and leaves the room, heading straight to his locker. There, he grabs all of his books, notebooks, and binders, as well as his phone. He puts most of his stuff in his backpack, carrying what wouldn't fit. He then walks out the building. When he crosses the street in front of the school, he walks for a while until he reaches the corner. When he rounds the corner, he pulls a cigarette out of his pocket, lights it, and takes a drag. Exhaling the smoke, he thinks about the plans he'd made with Andy earlier in the day. As he walks, he takes more drags off of his cigarette, thinking the whole time, _"What will Inferno think of this plan?"_ When he reaches the corner of West Mulberry Street and South Second Street, he is still thinking about what Inferno's response will be. As he crosses the intersection, he is in a really big hurry to get home. Halfway between the corner and the train tracks, he pulls out another cigarette and lights it. As he crosses the train tracks, he thinks to himself, _"Almost there."_ When he gets to the corner of Brown Street and West Mulberry Street, he finishes his cigarette, putting it out, and continuing his thought. Finally, about three minutes later, he rounds the stretch of road known as "Dead Man's Curve," one of the most treacherous stretches of road in the City of Watseka. From the end of the curve, he can finally see his home. He arrives three minutes later to find Inferno and his father sitting on the porch talking. The three men then walk in the house.

…**Inside…Fifteen seconds later…**

As they enter the house, Earl's father asks him, "How was your day at school?"

"I fell into two fits of daydreaming during sixth and seventh periods, but other than that, very well," Earl replied.

"Well, that's not good, but if you don't like those classes, then it's all the entertainment you've got."

"Yeah, that's very true. I didn't plan on daydreaming during seventh period; it just happened."

Inferno then asked, "What did you guys do during third period? I know from listening to you talk about it that that is one of your favorite classes."

"We talked about what a variable is in a mathematical expression or equation. Then, Mr. Johnson wrote out some thirty or forty variable expressions for reference. I can show you my notes after dad leaves, if you want to see what he wrote."

"Yeah, I think that would be interesting."

"I slept all day," Earl's father said.

"I did too," Inferno said.

"I take it that you two are going to stay up all night," said Earl's father.

"I don't know," Earl replied.

"Well, it's always interesting to talk to you two, but I'm really late. I'll see both of you in the morning," Earl's father stated.

"Bye, dad."

"Bye, Mr. Jones," Inferno said.

Fifteen minutes after Earl's father left, Earl and Inferno decided to get started on homework. They finished Earl's algebra homework in a matter of twenty-five minutes. Then, they decided to delve straight into chemistry. During this time, Earl told Inferno about the plans that he'd made with Andy earlier in the day.

…**Forty-five minutes later…Continued from Earl's Second Dream…**

"Well, my friend Andy wants to know if you want to come get fucked up with the two of us on Friday night," Earl said.

"Yeah, I would like to meet some of your local friends," Inferno said in response.

"Great. I'll tell Andy that you want to come, and then I'll set up the time with him at the bus stop tomorrow morning."

"Please let me know what he says."

"I will. While we're hanging out, you should explain your powers to Andy, the same way that you explained them to me."

"I will, but I think it's time to get back to work on chemistry."

"Okay, where were we?"

Earl then went back to work on his chemistry, balancing the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth chemical equations in his assignment set. After he finished them, Inferno looked them over. He then looked at Earl and said, "I think you're getting the hang of this, now."

Earl said, "They're all right?"

"Yes," Inferno replied.

"Now, to move on to the next group."

Earl then did the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth equations. He was shocked at how fast he was able to finish these six equations. After he finished them, Inferno looked at them, commenting, "Wow, dude, you really _are_ getting the hang of this. I'll be on the computer, so just call me over when you finish the last two of your problems. "

"Okay, I will."

Five minutes later, Earl called Inferno over to check the last two problems. He looked them over, then told Earl that he was officially done with his chemistry homework. Earl then looked at Inferno, asking him, "What do you want to do with the rest of the night?"

"I don't know," Inferno replied.

"Do you want to take a walk uptown?"

"Yeah, I guess I could use a little fresh air."

The two then exited the room, walking through the dining room and the living room. When they reached the front door, Earl opened it. He then checked his pockets to make sure that he had his keys and his cell phone. He then locked the door and walked outside, followed by Inferno. As soon as they were both outside, he shut the door behind them. The two men then left the porch and began to walk slowly eastbound on Mulberry Street. As they walked around Dead Man's Curve, Earl said, "I am not only going to show you the main road, I'm also going to show you the north side of town. That's the part that I wasn't able to get in last Thursday night."

"Cool," Inferno said, "I'd like to see it, but I cannot imagine that there's anything fun to do there, either."

"There's not."

As the two crossed the train tracks on West Mulberry, they began to feel as if the stress of the day was beginning to disappear. They felt more relaxed than at any prior point in that day. Earl pulled out a cigarette and began to smoke it. As Earl finished his cigarette, the two were rounding the corner of South Second Street and West Walnut Street. They walked Eastbound for one block, before crossing Walnut Street. Walnut Street, also known as U.S. Highway Twenty-four, was the city's main east-west street. Walking northbound on Third Street, they crossed Oak Street, then Ash Street. Then, the turned eastbound on Ash Street, crossing the intersection of Fourth street, when Earl decided that they would go back to the south. It was at this point that Inferno had to ask, "What are we doing?"

"You said you wanted to come out here with me, so we're walking around. This is what we do to blow off steam when getting fucked up is not possible," Earl replied.

"Let's go back uptown."

"Yeah, that's where we're going."

"There's that intersection one block over, what's that place known as?"

"That's Town Center Square. There's not much there, but that's where Andy want us to meet him on Friday night."

"Earlier, you said that we were on Second Street. How many numbered streets are there in Watt-see-kuh?"

"Eleven," Earl replied.

"Eleven?!"

"Yes, Inferno, there are eleven numbered streets here. There are also several streets that are named after kinds of trees, i.e. Ash, Hickory, Oak, Mulberry, Cherry, Walnut, Locust, etc.," Earl replied, "There are also other different names, such as North Street, Kay Street, and others."

Crossing Walnut Street to return home, the two friends continued to walk southbound on Fourth Street. When they reached Locust Street, they turned westbound, crossing Third and Second Streets. After crossing Second Street, they turned southbound, crossing Mulberry Street before turning westbound once again. After they crossed the train tracks, Earl pulled out another cigarette, smoking it while the two walked around Dead Man's Curve. When they finally arrived back at the house, Earl put his cigarette out, before unlocking the door and walking inside with Inferno.

…**Fifteen Seconds later…**

Earl opened the door to his bedroom, and he walked inside, followed by Inferno. He laid down in his bed and flipped on the television, while Inferno curled up at the foot of the bed. When he saw that there was nothing good on, he just flipped on Fox News, like he had during the weekend. On the news show, there was a black dude asking the American people to vote for him, without giving any details as to why they should choose him. By this point, Earl was really tired, so he turned off the TV and fell asleep. Inferno followed suit a few minutes later.

…_**Inferno's Dream…Twenty minutes later…**_

Earl and I were walking down Third Street on our way home from a walk. This gerbil-like creature suddenly cut us off at the intersection of Third and Walnut Streets, asking me to follow him. I refuse, and he calls for someone called Leroy. What I see when Leroy arrives is something that looks like me, only red. The gerbil says to Leroy, "Get him!"

I then say, "Hey, gerbil-boy, what the fuck's your problem?"

"I AM _NOT_ A GERBIL!"

"Well, then, what the fuck are you?"

"I am hamster-like. My name's Dr. Jacques von Hamsterviel; and you're coming with me, abomination!"

"I don't think so," I said, pissed off that this "hamster-wheel" would try to force me to his fucking will like that.

"Leroy," Dr. Hamsterviel ordered.

"Ih, Meega know what to do," Leroy replied.

…_**End of Inferno's Dream…Sequence to be continued in Chapter Fifteen…**_

Meanwhile, Earl slept soundly just a few inches away from Inferno. He was also dreaming, his dream being about what he was going to say to Andy in the morning.

…_**Earl's Dream…**_

I walked to the bus stop as I usually do in the mornings. Andy was there, so I stopped to say hi. He replies, "What's up, Earl?"

I reply back, "Not much."

"What did Inferno say last night?"

"He said that he would like to join us."

"That's good. I would really like to meet him."

"He said the same thing of you."

"I think we should meet at eleven on Friday night."

"I like that time."

Then, it was time to get on the bus, so we parted ways, got on the bus, and headed to school. When we got there, I headed straight for my locker, placed my cell phone in there, and grabbed my books for the first four periods of my day. I then shut my locker, and walked across the hall to my first class.

…_**End of Earl's Dream…**_


	4. Finalizing Plans

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Four: Finalizing Plans

Finished on Friday, July 17, 2015 at 00:01:33 Central Daylight Time

* * *

…**Wednesday, September 3, 2008…Before School…**

At six o'clock the next morning, Earl woke up to find that Inferno was already up and eating breakfast with his father. He greeted his father and Inferno, who both acknowledged his presence. The three then began discussing their plans for the day. Earl's father said that he would be sleeping for most of the day, since he had to work that night. Inferno told Earl that he would be there, probably sleeping for a lot of the day. The three ate breakfast, then Earl left for school.

As Earl walked the two blocks to the bus stop, he couldn't help but feel sorry for Inferno. He was there at the house, all alone, for eight hours of every day. He thought that he should skip school for just one day, using that day to hang out with Inferno. As he was thinking this, he remembered that many of his fellow seniors were already making plans to skip school the day after prom. He was still deep in thought when he reached the bus stop. He saw that Andy was there and he stopped to say hi.

Andy replies, "What's up, Earl?"

Earl replies back, "Not much."

"What did Inferno say last night?"

"He said that he would like to join us."

"That's good. I would really like to meet him."

"He said the same thing of you."

"I think we should meet at eleven o'clock on Friday night."

"I like that time."

Then, it was time to get on the bus, so they parted ways, got on the bus, and headed to school. When they got there, Earl headed straight for his locker, placed his cell phone in there, and grabbed his books for the first four periods of his day. He then shut his locker, and walked across the hall to his first class.


	5. Earl's Boredom

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Five: Earl's Boredom

Finished on Sunday, July 19, 2015 at 01:42:27 Central Daylight Time

* * *

…**First Period English IV Academic…**

Earl walked into room number one-four-four for his class. He sat down in his seat, opened his book and his notes, and then prepared for the lecture. As the lecture began, Earl began to write down what his teacher, Mrs. Davis, was saying. It was really easy for him, since she also wrote the words on the chalkboard. He listened to Mrs. Davis talk for a good twenty or thirty minutes, before he got bored and started to daydream. He continued to write notes in his notebook, but he was no longer listening to her speak.

…_**Earl's point-of-view…**_

I was looking at the chalkboard, absent-mindedly writing everything that Mrs. Davis was writing. Over my thoughts of wanting to go home and hang out with my little alien friend, I could hear the bitch talking about public speaking. I absolutely despised the topic, after listening to her drone on about it for the past five or six class periods. I wanted to find some way to communicate with Inferno during this god-awful class, but there was just no getting around _this_ fucking bitch. Inferno was probably curled up at the foot of my bed, sleeping peacefully. That seems to be all that he does. It's as good a way to pass the time as any, I guess. Still, though, I wonder what he's _really_ thinking. When I get home from school every day, Inferno is usually there to greet me. I think that he really genuinely cares for me. He never complains that I'm gone a lot, but still, I wonder how he really feels.

…_**Normal point-of-view… Five minutes later…**_

Meanwhile, back at Earl's house, Inferno was, in fact peacefully sleeping, curled up at the foot of Earl's bed. He woke up a few seconds later. The first thing he did was log into Earl's computer. He logged onto the National Hurricane Center's website, in order to research hurricanes. He found a page that described what hurricanes were and how they formed. He read it very thoroughly, then wrote down his thoughts in a notebook that Earl had given to him. In this notebook, Inferno wrote down his personal thoughts. Any time he thought really hard about something, he wrote it down. He wrote his feelings down, then closed his notebook, placing it back in its place.

Inferno and Earl were both very tidy people. Everything had its place. Earl kept his school supplies in the top drawer of his desk. In the drawer below it, he kept all of his hurricane stuff in folders, organized by year, then by storm. In the third drawer, he kept all of his school stuff in folders, organized by course. Then, in the bottom drawer, Earl allowed Inferno to keep all of the things that he'd accumulated during his time in the home. The rest of the room was just as neat. Earl kept all of his things in boxes, labeling each with something that reminded him just what was in it. Inferno's area was empty, as he'd not accumulated much stuff during the five days that he'd been in Watseka. He was someone who didn't really need that much stuff, though, so his empty area was just fine by him.

The two friends would take turns cleaning their room. Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday were Earl's days; while Inferno had the cleaning duties on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. During the prior weekend, Earl had taken the time to explain to Inferno where everything went. Inferno watched Earl place his things in their proper places, memorizing the location where Earl had placed each and every item. Earl had told him to remember where things went, so that he could clean the room when Earl wasn't there.

…**Back in Earl's class…**

Mrs. Davis had just begun explaining how to outline a speech. This particular portion of the lecture, in Earl's mind, was the most boring part. She then gave the students an opportunity to practice writing a basic outline, and Earl went back off into la-la land.

…**Back at the house…**

Inferno was sitting in Earl's room, alone. He wanted to hang out with his new friend. He didn't understand why Earl had to go to school. He decided that he'd ask him when he got home. After pondering this question for five or ten minutes, he went into reflection about something Earl had told him during the prior weekend.

…_**Inside Inferno's mind… His point-of-view…**_

I heard Earl call my name. I went over to where he was and asked him what the problem was. He said that he had to go to school on Tuesday; although I've got to admit that I have no idea what that meant. He was more than happy to explain it to me.

He'd said, "School is the place I go to learn different subjects like math and chemistry."

"Why are these things so important?" I asked.

"I need these things to get further in my own life. I'm not like you. I don't know these things, so I've got to learn them; that's why I go to school."

"I think I understand, now. Is that why you're gone for eight or nine hours every day?"

"Yes. What you think of as a long time without me there is, to me, seven different, shorter, time periods. Each one is a different class."

"And you're taking seven of them? I already know that you're taking Algebra II and Chemistry I; what are the other five?"

"I'm also taking English IV Academic, P.E., Spanish II, Study Hall, and Web Page Design."

"Except for the study hall, for its purpose is fairly obvious to me, what is the purpose of these other four?"

"Well," he began, "English IV Academic is designed to help me learn how to write better papers. P.E., short for Physical Education, is a really boring class, whose purpose I don't fully understand myself. Then, in Spanish II, I'm learning a foreign language, called, as the name suggests, Spanish. In Web Page Design, I learn how to design a web page. It's not something I _have_ to learn, but it's something that I took for fun."

"Oh," I said, "I see."

…_**Normal point-of-view…fifteen minutes later…**_

Fifteen minutes after his teacher ended the lecture, Earl had finished writing his practice outline. After a few more minutes of just sitting there, doing absolutely nothing, he was in la-la land for the third time that period. The shameful thing was, the period was about to end. Earl had just begun to daydream for the third time, when the bell rang to end the class period. Earl got up out of his seat, completely exhausted. He closed his textbook and notebook, stacked them neatly on top of the other stuff he'd brought, and went quietly to his locker.

Now, Earl's locker was just as neat as his bedroom at home. Everything had its place. He kept all of his textbooks, notebooks, and binders organized there on the bottom shelf of the locker, according to his class schedule. All the way to the left, he'd placed his materials for first period, and all the way to the right were his materials for seventh period.

While Earl was at his locker, he checked his phone. _No messages. Inferno must not have needed anything._ He thought. He then placed all of his materials back in their places, shut the door, and proceeded to walk to the gym for his second period class.


	6. Games and Reflections

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Six: Frisbee and Reflection

Finished on Sunday, July 19, 2015 at 05:29:28 Central Daylight Time

* * *

…**Second Period…Physical Education…**

During the time that Earl was walking to his physical education class, Inferno sat in Earl's room wondering what he could do with this part of his day. He had a pretty strong feeling that Earl was bored out of his mind, but he knew that there wasn't much that he could do for his friend. He felt, though, as if he should do _something_ with his time. After mulling it over for a few seconds, he logged back into Earl's computer, with the goal of _typing_ his notebook's contents.

…_**Inferno's point-of-view…**_

One of the things that Earl had done to accommodate me on his computer was to establish a user account for me. He'd given me a simple password that was easy for me to remember: 000666. He told me that the extra three zeroes were necessary because passwords are required to have at least six characters. He then began to show me around the computer, explaining what certain Earth terms that I was unfamiliar with meant. He had told me about something called _Windows XP_. When I asked him what that meant, his response was, "Windows XP is the program that runs the computer. Everything you see here on the screen is a part of it."

I had asked him what the icons on the screen meant, and his response was, "This top-left icon is called the recycle bin. This is where the computer stores the documents that you delete until you decide to permanently get rid of them."

Then, pointing to the next one down, I asked, "What's this one?"

"That is the Control Panel. That is where you change the settings for your user account at. Some of the settings on there are inaccessible to you, for your account does not have administrative privileges," he explained.

"I take it that _you_ are the computer administrator."

"That's correct," he said.

Then, changing the subject, and pointing to the next icon on the screen, I asked him, "What's this one?"

"That is your personal folder. In there are all of your personal files. Documents, music, pictures, and videos that you create or download are stored there," he said.

Pointing to the icon at the top of the next column, I asked, "What's this?"

"That is a word-processing program. It's called Microsoft Office Word 2007. Here, you can type almost anything. I use it for school reports," he said.

Then, he said, "These next three icons are also Microsoft Office programs. The first one is called Excel. It's like a calculator, in which you can type in any number of numbers and do various calculations with them. Next is PowerPoint. You can use this program to create slideshows. Finally, there's OneNote. It's like an electronic notebook, in which you can type any kind of notes. For your purposes, though, I think Word will suffice."

…_**Normal point-of-view…**_

Inferno logged into Earl's computer using his password. As soon as he was in, he found and clicked on the large "W," which, as Earl had told him, was Microsoft Word. When he clicked on it, a small box popped up, and inside, in large, black font, were the words "Microsoft Office Word 2007." Then, about twenty-five seconds later, the document screen came into view. He then pulled out his personal notebook, opened it, and began to type. On the very first line, he typed the date of his entry, Thursday, August 28, 2008. He pressed the Enter key, then the Tab key, then he began the first paragraph of his entry. He finished the entire thing, running nearly two thousand words and four pages, in about forty-five seconds.

He then typed the remaining six entries in his notebook, finishing all of them in almost five minutes. He then saved each of them, giving each one its date as its name. After he was finished, he logged onto the internet to check the latest forecasts for Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Gustav. While on the National Hurricane Center's website, he saw that there was a _third_ tropical cyclone active, this one named Ike. He wrote down everything he'd learned about the three storms in his notebook, and when he was finished, he closed the web browser and opened Microsoft Word for a second time. He typed his new entry in five minutes, saved it, logged off the computer, and then decided to take a nap.

…**Back at the High School…**

Earl and his male classmates were busy playing Frisbee outside in the nearly ninety-degree, early-September, fresh air. After he had split the twenty-five men into two teams, the teacher, Mr. Hill had sent one half to one end of the field and the other half, including Earl, to the other end. The half on the north end of the field had on belts with two red flags attached by Velcro; and the half on the south end of the field had on belts with two yellow flags attached by Velcro. The game was structured a lot like a football game, in that there were two end zones and a field goal. The goal was to catch the Frisbee in the end zone. That's how you score.

Earl was standing in the necessary end zone to score for his team, when a large, tall, ugly-looking dude _from the other team_ threw the Frisbee right at his crotch. He caught the Frisbee, but not before it hit him right in the balls. His team earned the six points, and the ugly dude got a detention, the teacher viewing his actions as intentional. He later commented to one of his friends that the ugly dude was a "fucking retard."

…**Back at Earl's house… Five minutes later…**

After a fifteen-minute nap, Inferno woke up and flipped on the TV. After he flipped through the various channels for a few minutes, he settled on Fox News. There was some total idiot on the screen talking shit about Iran's nuclear program. He had absolutely no idea what Iran was, but he knew that if this idiot was talking about it, then it must be important. The "idiot" turned to be none other than the Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Moshiach Shalom. Inferno, after listening carefully to what he was saying, thought, _Man, Earl was right; this guy really is an idiot._ Getting sick of listening to the idiot speak, Inferno turned his attention, and the TV, over to CNN. There was another idiot, this one the President of the United States, Terry Weakly. He, too, was talking about the sanctions he'd imposed on Iran, only he was making much more sense than the idiot on Fox. However, like with Fox News, Inferno could only handle a little of listening to this idiot on CNN speak. He soon turned off the TV, rose from his seat, and went outside.

…**Back at the High School…**

Earl was still standing in the end zone, in almost the same position as he'd been standing in for the past thirty-five minutes. The Frisbee was thrown to him for the fifth time, but he was slow to respond, and didn't catch it. Then, another dude on his team threw it to him a sixth time, and he caught it. After this catch, the teacher declared an end to the game. The twenty-six men then went back inside the school, changed out of their gym uniforms, and just sat there waiting for the bell to ring. When it finally did, Earl left the gymnasium and went back to his locker. He grabbed his book, notebook, and binder for third period; then slowly proceeded to walk into the classroom.


	7. Quiz Day

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Seven: Quiz Day

Finished on Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 17:34:45 Central Daylight Time

* * *

…**Third Period… Algebra II…**

As Earl walked into room one-four-six for his third period class, he was thinking about what better things he could be doing with this time. For example, he could have been at the house teaching Inferno more about hurricanes or about the culture of this town. He only had so much time over the weekend to explain things to him; and he really wanted to explain more.

When he walked into the classroom, he noticed that his teacher, Mr. Emerson, was handing the students papers, which could, in Earl's mind, mean only one thing. As Mr. Emerson handed him the paper, he thought; _Oh, great. Another fucking quiz._ A few seconds later, he sat down and began working on the quiz. As he read the first problem, he thought; _4x + 6 = 666, that's too damn easy. The answer is that x = 165; because when you subtract six from both sides, the result is that 4x = 660. Then, when you divide both sides of that equation by four, the resulting equation is x = 165._

…**Earl's house… two minutes later…**

Inside Earl's bedroom, Inferno was sitting there just staring into space. He really had nothing to do, so he decided to go out in the back yard. He laid in the grass and eventually fell into a state of deep relaxation. This was the state he went into right before a reflection hit him.

…_**Inferno's point-of-view…**_

It was Saturday night. Earl and I had just returned from uptown and were sitting on his bed talking. Just then, his father called me out into the dining room. He said, "Inferno, would you like to drink a beer with me, tonight?"

"Yeah, why not," I replied.

I took the beer can from his hand, and he said, "Do you see that little rounded tab-like thing on the top?"

"Yes, I do. What do I do with it?" I asked him.

"Pull it backwards, then push it back forwards."

I did what he said, and the can opened. I slowly began to drink its contents. When I was finished, I began to feel light-headed. When I told him how I felt, he told me that I should drink another one. I did that, and I immediately began to feel really woozy. Before too much longer, I could no longer stand up straight. When I asked him what the fuck was going on, he told me that I was fucked up. I felt sick. A few minutes later, I crawled to the bathroom, opened the toilet lid, and vomited into the toilet. Mr. Jones said that he'd expected this. He said that the same thing had happened to _him_ the first time that _he'd_ gotten drunk, some thirty-five years earlier. He didn't blame me for my reaction, then calmly told me that I should sleep it off.

I then went back into Earl's room and laid down. Earl noticed that my breath, as he would later tell me, smelled like beer. He knew that I'd finally gotten drunk for the first time. He went out of the room. He was gone for like five or ten minutes, then he came back into the room. A little while later, I began to feel normal again, so I resumed talking to Earl. He asked me how it felt, and I told him that I absolutely _loved_ getting drunk and wanted to do it again at some later point.

…_**Normal point-of-view… back in Earl's class…**_

It was fifteen minutes later. Earl had finished his quiz and was now waiting for the teacher to begin the lecture. When he finally did, however, Earl was very disappointed, because the lecture was over the exact same material they'd covered the day before. He sat there, patiently waiting for the bell to ring, all the while taking notes. He sat there, not listening to anything that Mr. Emerson was saying. He wondered, in the deep recesses of his mind, exactly _how many_ creatures like Inferno there were. He knew that Inferno was number six hundred sixty-six; but that did not mean that he was the youngest one; for there could be more after him that he'd never met.

…**Back at Earl's House…**

Inferno was laying outside in the back yard. He was thinking, reflecting on the first time he'd smoked a cigarette. His thoughts caused him to lose all track of time, and before he knew it, twenty-five minutes had passed.

…_**Flashback…Sunday morning… Inferno's point-of-view…**_

Earl and I were sitting outside on his front porch. We were talking about what we were going to do with the upcoming week. Earl had already said that he had to go to school; and explained what that meant. I'd said that I didn't know what I'd do. After a few minutes of discussion, Earl pulled a stick out of a box. It had an orange end to it. He stuck the orange end in his mouth. I'd asked him what he was doing; and what the stick was. He told me that the stick was called a _cigarette_, and that it was something that was smoked. I'd never had a cigarette before, but I was almost certain that I'd seen experiments six-two-six and six-two-nine doing the same thing when I was first created. I asked Earl if I could have one. He pulled out the box. It was red and had the word _Marlboro_ printed on it in large type. He pulled out another cigarette and handed it to me. He then lit his cigarette. I put the orange end of the cigarette in my mouth. I powered up, then put my claw up to the end of the cigarette. I followed what I saw Earl doing. I took a long draw off the cigarette, then inhaled. I could feel the smoke entering my lungs. I exhaled the smoke, then coughed. It was strange; I was told that smoking cigarettes was very bad for me and that I would keel over dead after the first drag. That's not what happened at all. In fact, it felt rather refreshing; as if all the stress had suddenly left my body. We both then finished our cigarettes and went back inside.

…_**End Flashback…**_

…**Back at the High School…**

Earl, bored out of his mind, was sitting there in the classroom, patiently waiting for the bell to ring. _Any minute now…_ he thought. He was looking forward to what Mrs. Anders had to say in his next class. As he was thinking, the bell finally rang. He got up out of his seat and walked out of the room. He went straight to his locker to drop off his things from third period, and then grabbed his stuff for fourth period. He then walked toward room number one-four-three.


	8. Spanish, Conversations, and Reflections

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Eight: Spanish, Conversation, and Reflection

Finished on Friday, July 24, 2015 at 00:30:49 Central Daylight Time

* * *

…**Fourth Period…Spanish II…**

When Earl walked into room one-four-three, he was excited to learn some new vocabulary words. His Spanish was getting better, and he wanted to improve it even more. His teacher, Mrs. Anders, was a thirty-five-year-old white woman with blond hair and green eyes. She handed him a paper with the new vocabulary words on it, and he began to attempt to sound them out. The first vocabulary word was _"la alfombra,"_ which meant _rug_. As he continued down the list, sounding out each of the seventy-five words, Mrs. Anders said, "Hola! Como Estas?"

"Bien, Y tú," the entire class replied.

"Estoy bien," Mrs. Anders replied.

After this exchange, Mrs. Anders went straight into the lesson. A couple of people started laughing their asses off when she said that _el Negro_ meant _black_. This was because they were racists, who knew that the word was where the infamous "N-word" came from. After a few minutes of non-stop laughter from these racist sacks of shit, Earl decided that he'd had enough, and began to think of Inferno…again.

…_**Earl's point-of-view…**_

I am sitting in a class full of fucking racists. These people are laughing at something so fucking trivial that it's funny in and of itself. Inferno will not think it's funny when I go home and tell him, tonight. He'll criticize their fucked-up thought processes, and probably, he'll think they're fucking stupid.

I wonder what Inferno's thinking, sitting there at home, all alone. My dad's asleep, so he's not there for Inferno to talk to. If he, too, is asleep, then there's nothing to worry about. I guess that sleeping, in Inferno's mind, is the best cure for boredom. He's seemed to love it ever since he's been here. I can't blame him, though; this town is _very_ fucking boring.

…_**Normal point-of-view…**_

With the laughter now subsided, Earl re-engrossed himself in the lesson. Mrs. Anders was continuing to spout off different Spanish words and their English translations; asking the class to repeat after her. After about fifteen minutes, Earl began to drift off again, not noticing that Mrs. Anders had called on him three separate times. Then, in the hopes of getting his attention, she placed a blank detention slip on the desktop in front of him. That woke him up. By this point, however, there were only three minutes left in the class period, so he picked up his books and sat patiently. When the three minutes were over, the bell rang; and he got up, walking out the door. He went to his locker to drop his stuff off. When he was done, he went straight to the Cafeteria for lunch.

…**Lunch…**

When Earl walked into the cafeteria, he went straight to the table his friends were sitting at. One of them, a big, burly sophomore, said, "Hey, Earl; what's up?"

"Not much, John," Earl replied.

"We've heard that you found an alien last week."

"Yeah. What, is it all over the fucking news?"

"No, but you know how things work in this damn place."

"Yeah, I do, dude."

"Hey, can we meet him? What's he like? What the fuck's his name?"

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind. His name's Inferno and he's pretty cool. I'm trying to teach him the way things work in this town, and I think that meeting some other Watsekans is just what he needs."

"Cool. When can we come over?"

"I'll ask my dad if you guys can come over on Saturday night."

"Cool. Let us know what he says. Here. Tomorrow at Lunch."

"I will. I'll have to ask Inferno, as well; but, like I said, I'm sure he won't mind."

Another one of his friends asked, "What can he do?"

"You'll have to see for yourself, Amber. It's kind of hard to explain without him here."

"Well, I'd like to come and meet him _tonight_."

"Well, I don't know if that's gonna work. I've got plenty of homework from just my first four classes."

"Fuck homework."

"Well, I would if I wasn't really close to graduating."

"Fuck this goddamn school."

"I hate it too; but, as I said, I'm extremely close to getting the fuck outta here."

A third friend piped in, "Why do you care so goddamn much about what your dad thinks? Ain't you eighteen years old?"

"Yes," Earl replied, "but I still live under his roof. What he says goes, until I go off to college."

"Well, there's something to be said for that."

"Yes, there is, James."

"Dude, where's your books? I almost _always_ see you with at least one," John says.

"I left them in my locker today," Earl replied, "I didn't feel like carrying all that shit here, only to have to carry it back there forty-five minutes later."

As the four friends ate, they continued to discuss things going on in their lives. Then, after forty more minutes of this, the bell rang. They took their lunch trays up to the disposal area and then went to their lockers. Earl then walked up the stairs towards room number two-two-nine.

…**Fifth Period…Study Hall…**

As soon as Earl walked into room number two-two-nine, his mind was back at his house. His teacher, Mrs. Jane Adams, walked in the room right after he did. He sat down, and began to drift off. While he was doing this, Mrs. Adams was talking roll call. He didn't answer when she called his name, but she knew that he was there. After roll, he pulled out a book and began to read it. He read it for three minutes, thinking about Inferno the whole time.

…**At Earl's House…During Fifth Period…**

Inferno was sitting at Earl's computer, completely bored. He'd read all of the new advisory texts on the three active tropical cyclones; and was now drifting off looking at the satellite imagery of them. Two minutes later, he began reflecting, again, and this time, was smart enough to type it out.

…_**Flashback…Inferno's point-of-view…**_

It was Sunday night. I'd been drinking with Earl's father again, and was really fucked up. After a few minutes of sitting there in a drunken stupor, Earl walked back in. Apparently, he'd gone uptown to buy some cigarettes. He walked in the room, noticed me sitting there drunk, and asked, "Hey, Inferno. What's up?"

"Not much," I said, in a drunken tone.

"Are you drunk," he asked.

"Yeah, I am pretty fucked up."

"Well, why don't you come outside with me? I've got something for you."

"Sure," I said.

I walked outside with him. He handed me a red-colored box with the word _Marlboro_ printed on it in large type. It was a pack of cigarettes.

"Go ahead, pull one out. That's _your_ box," he said.

I pulled out a cigarette, put it in my mouth, lit it, and began to smoke it. It felt just like the first time. I felt the stress leave my body as the smoke entered my lungs. I exhaled, unsure of what I was really thinking. When I was half-done, I laid down on the wooden surface of the porch, felling totally relaxed. I took another draw, inhaling the smoke. More stress gone. I then finished the cigarette, and we both went inside. By this point, I was in a complete state of relaxation.

Thirty minutes after this, as I was lying on his bed, he divided up the carton he'd bought. He placed four packs in my drawer. The other five he'd placed in his drawer. I still had the fifth of mine in my hand. He took it out and placed it in my drawer.

An hour later, I'd begun to come down off of the nicotine rush I'd received from the cigarette. He'd said that around here, they call them _squares_. _What,_ I thought. _Why would they call them something like that?_

…_**End of Flashback…Normal point-of-view…**_

Fifteen minutes later, Inferno had finished typing his flashback. He closed the file, saving it with the current date as its name. He then went over to Earl's bed and fell asleep. He'd be asleep for the rest of fifth period, and all the way through sixth period.

…**Back at the High School…**

Earl sat in the study hall room, patiently waiting for the bell to ring. Once it did, he quickly scooped up his books and high-tailed it out of the room. He then went to his locker to grab the stuff he'd need for sixth period. When he was done, he quickly made his way to room two-two-seven for his least favorite class of the day: Chemistry I.


	9. Chemical Boredom and Web Page Fun

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Nine: Chemical Boredom and Web Page Fun

Finished on Friday, July 24, 2015 at 04:49:32 Central Daylight Time

* * *

…**Sixth Period…Chemistry I…**

When Earl walked into room two-two-seven, he sat down in his seat, opened his book, and waited for Mr. Davidson to begin his monotonous lecture. Once he did, Earl began to write down something in his notebook. Earl sat there, writing in his notebook for the next ten minutes, before suddenly falling asleep. He began to dream shortly thereafter.

…_**Flashback…Earl's point-of-view…**_

It was Monday morning. I was sitting at my computer. Inferno was sitting on the desk, off to the side of the monitor. We had just awoken and, as with every other morning, we were looking at the hurricanes. I had just pulled up a satellite image of Tropical Storm Ike. Inferno was not impressed with the storm's appearance. I told him that it would probably look better in a few days, and not to worry too much about it. He said that he was not worried, and that I had misinterpreted his statement. Then, he said, "What do you feel like doing today?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do?" I replied.

"I really got no idea," he said.

"Let's just continue to sit here until we feel like doing something else."

"I like that idea. What other websites do you look at for fun?"

"I personally like the National Hurricane Center, the Chicago National Weather Service, and FanFiction," I said.

I pulled up FanFiction, and we read other peoples' work for a good three hours before we got bored. I then went outside and smoked a cigarette. Inferno didn't really feel that he needed one, so he stayed inside. When I came back inside, I found him laying back on my bed, watching the news. On the screen was some idiot talking about global warming. I'd seen this idiot before; hell, I'd even written a paper criticizing his idiotic views. I walked in the room and joined him, lying down on the bed in the location that I normally did. He then scooted closer, to the point where his upper chest was pressed firmly against my leg. I could feel his heart beat.

After three hours of this, we both decided to go outside and lay in the back yard. We _both_ took our respective cigarette packs with us, not knowing if we were going to use them or not. After an hour of lying in the grass, just watching the clouds roll by, we both sat up. We could both feel our heart rates increase. By this point, it was six o'clock in the evening, so we went inside and began to prepare for the upcoming school day. What little homework I didn't finish on Friday night, we finished at this point. After finishing it, we laid back down, flipping on the news again. This time, there was another idiot talking about nine-eleven. I thought, _why are you talking about this? Nine-eleven was a tragedy, yes, but what the fuck does it have to do with the main point of your speech?_ This idiot rambled on for a good hour-and-a-half. The entire time, Inferno and I watched as he spouted off a bunch of political bullshit.

When he was done with his political rant, I flipped off the television. Both Inferno and I decided that we needed a cigarette after listening to that, so we went outside and smoked one. Inferno had gotten pretty stressed out after listening to that. He admitted, while he was smoking, that he "had no idea what the fuck that idiot was saying." I told him that I didn't know either, and that that's probably what the idiot wanted. When we were finished, Inferno _looked_ relaxed. He then took my hand. This was the first time I would feel his heart beat _after_ he smoked a cigarette. I could feel the rapid beat of his heart. I asked him, "Does it feel any different than earlier?"

"No," he said.

"Does smoking cigarettes even affect your species the way it affects us humans?"

"No," he re-iterated.

"Well, what does it do?"

"In my race, nicotine is a potent stress reliever. Also, we do not have the same brain chemistry as humans, so we don't get hooked. Have you noticed that this is the first cigarette I've had all day?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Well, this is normal for experiments. We don't really _need_ to smoke, and we only do when we're incredibly stressed out."

"Well, you must not get stressed out that much. We humans smoke because our brains tell us that we _do_ need it. When the brain sends the signal that it's time to smoke, we typically drop whatever _or whoever_ we're doing to satisfy the craving."

"That sucks," he said, "I feel bad for you. Why don't you quit?"

"I can't," I said, "The cravings hit once every thirty minutes or so, and at those times, I _have_ to smoke."

…_**End of Flashback…Still in Earl's point-of-view…**_

I sat in Chemistry, after having a major flashback that took up the _entire_ period, patiently waiting for the bell to ring. When it did, I got up, grabbed my books, and got the fuck out of that God-awful class. I walked to my locker, put my shit inside, shut the door, and walked the few feet to room one-five-one for my last class of the day.

…**Seventh Period…Web Page Design…Normal point-of-view…**

When Earl walked into the room, his teacher, Ms. Hall, greeted her class of twelve students. She then began the lecture. After lecturing over how to use seven more HTML tags, she set her twelve students loose, practicing the skills she'd just taught. From the beginning of the lecture to this point was just under fifteen minutes.

…**At Earl's house…**

Inferno laid there in Earl's bed, sound asleep. Thirty seconds later, something told him to wake up. He woke up, feeling well-rested. He knew that this was about the time that Earl's father woke up to begin his day. Anticipating this, he walked over to the door. He then opened the door just a bit, so that Mr. Jones knew that he was there. He then flipped on the television, turning it to Fox News. There was nothing interesting on there. There were no idiots talking about bullshit topics. He decided to research hurricanes a little more, so he went over to the computer; logging into his user account. He opened Internet Explorer, typing in the address for the National Hurricane Center website. He read the latest advisory texts on Gustav, Hanna, and Ike; absorbing as much of the material as he could. Just as he was going to pull up the satellite picture of Ike, Mr. Jones walked out into the hallway. He saw the door ajar and decided to peek in. When he saw Inferno, he said, "Good afternoon, Inferno."

"Good afternoon to you too, Mr. Jones," Inferno said.

"What are you researching?" Mr. Jones asked.

"Oh, I was just pulling up the satellite image of Hurricane Ike."

"Okay," Mr. Jones said, "When Earl gets home, please tell him that I got called into work early."

"All right, I will," Inferno replied, "He won't be here for another hour or so."

"School lets out at 3:06, then it takes him about twenty-five or thirty minutes to get back here."

When Mr. Jones left the room, Inferno continued what he was doing. He looked at the satellite image. He was impressed with the appearance of Hurricane Ike. He then thought, _man, Earl was right; this storm has mushroomed rather beautifully._ When he was done looking at Ike, he moved on to Gustav. It was just a tropical depression, moving over the Ark-La-Tex region. The forecast had called for it to move very close to Watseka the following night. He thought of this one, _it looks like we're gonna get a lot of rain tomorrow night._ After he was finished looking at Gustav, he moved on to the final storm, Hanna. Hurricane Hanna had just moved inland over Haiti as a category one storm. Its satellite presentation had never been very interesting to him, but by this point, as a category one, it looked the best he thought it ever would. On this one, he thought, _if only it had strengthened more over the weekend._

…**Back at the High School…**

By now, it was half-way through seventh period. Earl was busy doing some more practice with the seven new tags he'd learned that day. The tags connected very nicely with the ones he'd learned on previous days, so the work wasn't _that_ hard. After fifteen minutes of this, the bell rang. He got up out of his seat; but just as he did, an announcement came over the school's P.A. system. The voice at the other end said, "Because of the rain in the forecast for tomorrow; we will _not_ be having class. All of your work will be available online."

Earl walked out the door into the fresh air of a clear day. It was about eighty-five degrees, and there was not a cloud in the sky. He crossed Belmont Avenue and began to walk northward. When he got to the corner, he took his backpack off and began rummaging through it. When he couldn't find what he was looking for, he said, "Shit, I think I left them at home this morning." Of course, he was talking about his cigarettes.

Earl continued to walk, completely ignoring the typical hustle and bustle of a busy Watseka afternoon. He continued along his path, until he reached Glenn Raymond School. He got caught up in the mess of parents picking their offspring up from school. He just ignored most of them, focusing on his goal, getting home before his father left for work. As he crossed Second Street in front of the school, he thought about just booking it for his house. He crossed the train tracks, right before the three-fifteen freight train rolled by. By the time he reached his house, his ears were ringing from the sound of the train's horn. He walked up the driveway to find his father's van gone. He pulled out his key and unlocked the door. He walked inside, through the living room and dining room, straight into his bedroom. Inferno was sitting at his computer, typing out his private thoughts. When Earl walked in the room, he saved his file and logged off. He then said, "Hey, Earl; your father got called into work early, so he's not here."

"That explains a lot," Earl said.

Earl then opened the top drawer of his desk, found what he had been looking for, and walked outside. While he smoked outside, Inferno finished typing his document. He then saved it and logged off the computer. After that, he laid in Earl's bed and flipped on the television. After nothing of interest came on, he turned it off and waited for Earl to return.


	10. Night Spent Together

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Ten: Night Spent Together

Finished on Sunday, July 26, 2015 at 14:31:46 Central Daylight Time

* * *

…**Later That Night…**

Earl returned to the house after smoking his cigarette to find Inferno lying in bed, doing absolutely nothing. He then asked Inferno, "What do you feel like doing?"

"I don't know, what do _you_ feel like doing?" Inferno asked.

"I thought that we could do my homework, then go uptown," Earl said.

"Sounds like a plan," Inferno said.

Earl then got out his algebra book, flipping to the page that contained his twenty-six homework problems. He then got out a pencil and several sheets of paper; and the two worked through the twenty-six problems. When Earl finished the assignment, Inferno looked it over, giving him the "nod of approval," the signal that he was done and that they were all correct. He then went over to his backpack, grabbing his Spanish book, doing all of the assigned work from it. Since Inferno knew _absolutely no Spanish_, he couldn't tell Earl if it was right; so Earl went on to his next subject, English IV. When Inferno saw his assignment for this class, he asked Earl, "Do you want some help writing your speech?"

"Yeah, I suppose you could help me," Earl replied.

"Do you know what it is that you want to talk about?" Inferno asked.

"I think I want to discuss the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season."

Inferno and Earl then began to discuss and write out the speech. Two hours later, they were done, with Inferno going back, checking their writing for grammatical correctness and spelling. After twenty-five minutes of looking it over, the two friends went on to their final subject; Chemistry.

As Earl got out his chemistry textbook and notebook, he stopped and looked up at Inferno. He wanted Inferno's opinion of the homework that they were doing. Inferno just looked back at him and didn't say anything, as he waited for him to get his supplies. Earl opened up his book to the proper page, then began to write in his notebook. Inferno grabbed his own notebook and began to do the assignment as well. He finished it in just a couple of minutes and waited patiently for Earl to finish his. When he did, Inferno looked it over, comparing Earl's work to his own. He then congratulated Earl on finishing the assignment correctly. When they were finished, they both decided to have a cigarette.

The two friends went outside; and as soon as they got there, Inferno had his cigarette in his mouth. A few seconds later, he lit it and took the first drag. He had already felt the smoke entering his lungs by the time Earl lit his cigarette. Inferno then took another three drags, and by the time he was finished with them, he felt ultra-relaxed and ready to begin the next chapter of their night together. Both of them finished their cigarettes at the same time, put them out in the street, and went back in the house. Once inside, Inferno asked Earl, "What should we do now?"

"Let's watch TV," was Earl's reply.

"Okay, but I already checked, and there ain't jack shit on," Inferno said.

"Alright, what else can we do?"

"We could always get drunk."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

When they got to Earl's room, Inferno went straight to the fridge they had in there, grabbing two beers. He opened one of them for himself, handing the other one to Earl. Earl opened his beer, then drank four milliliters of fluid from the top of it. He then put his beer down and logged onto his computer. He opened Internet Explorer and typed in the National Hurricane Center's web address. He then took another drink, placing his beer back in its spot on the desktop. Inferno placed his beer next to the printer and then jumped up onto Earl's lap. Earl, noticing him there, patted him on the head two times. As he pulled up the National Weather Service Chicago website, Earl took another drink, with Inferno following suit. Earl then pulled up the local radar image. As soon as he did, Inferno took a deep breath and said, "It looks like some pretty big storms coming in from the south."

"Yeah, they canceled school tomorrow because of it. This, I believe, is the remains of Hurricane Gustav," Earl said.

"They _canceled_ it?!" Inferno asked, confused.

"Yeah, they didn't want us to get hurt, (you know), with the lightning and shit," Earl said.

"So, then, that means we've got the whole day to ourselves."

"Well, I've still gotta do the online school work."

"Well, we can do that, can't we?"

"Yeah; if you want to help me through my algebra and chemistry tomorrow, you can."

Earl then closed his web browser and took another sip of beer. Inferno finished his beer a few seconds later. He felt woozy, probably because he still had some nicotine in his system. He just curled himself up there on Earl's lap and fell asleep. Earl could feel his breathing. He could also feel Inferno's heartbeat. After a few minutes of this, he gently picked the sleeping creature up, careful not to wake him. He gently placed him at the foot of his bed, going over to the fridge for another beer.

When Earl returned to his seat, he placed the beer can on the desk. He then placed Inferno back on his lap. Earl noticed that Inferno's heart wasn't beating nearly as fast as it had been before. _He must be coming down from his nicotine rush_, Earl thought. Then, his cell phone rang, waking Inferno up. Noticing that it was his father, Earl answered the call, "Hello?"

"Hey, son; how are things going there?" His father asked.

"Fine. Hey, dad, where you at?" Earl asked.

"I'm in Cleveland, Ohio."

"Okay."

"I take it that you two are still there at the house?"

"Yes."

"Okay; I won't be back until Friday night. I'll see you two then."

"Alright, love you."

"Love you too, bye."

"Bye."

Earl then hung up the phone and resumed drinking his beer. Five minutes later, he was done with the beer. He then looked up at Inferno and asked, "What do you want to do now?"

"I don't know," was Inferno's reply.

"What is there to talk about?" Earl asked, "Hurricane Gustav (or, at least, its remnants) is bearing down on us; but what about Hurricanes Hanna and Ike?"

"Hanna is no threat to Watseka," Inferno said.

"Very true, but what about Ike?"

"I don't know," Inferno began, taking a deep breath, "It's currently a category two over the central Atlantic. If it makes it to this island here (pointing to Cuba), it could potentially be a problem. For now, though, I really wouldn't sweat it."

"Then, there's that orange-highlighted area on the map, west of Africa. They say that it could become _'Josephine'_ by the weekend."

"Well, then, we'll just have to watch it," Inferno said.

He left it at that. Earl then logged back into his computer. He opened his web browser, logging onto the school's website. There, he'd found out that his work was available for him to do now. He didn't want to work on it now, so he just started clicking around. He clicked on the link that said _First Period English IV Academic_. On the page, he found six links. He clicked on the first one and a window popped up, asking him if he wanted to open (or save) the linked file (a video of that day's lecture). He clicked on _yes_, and the file downloaded to his computer. He did this a total of twenty-nine more times (five more for first period and six each for the other four classes). When all was said and done, he'd downloaded _thirty_ videos.

While he was on the site, he decided to check his grades. He had a B+ in English, a C in P.E., an A+ in algebra, an A+ in Spanish, a D- in chemistry, and an A+ in web page design. Earl clicked on his chemistry grade, curious as to why it was a D-. He looked at each of the fourteen listed scores. He'd found out that he'd _miserably failed_ the first test. He clicked on the score and a window popped up, asking him if he wanted to open or save the linked file. He clicked on _save_, saved the file with the name _Exam 1_, and then proceeded to download and open the file. He read the entire PDF of the exam, carefully noting, over his teacher's shitty handwriting, the mistakes he'd made. He then asked Inferno to look it over. The small, black-furred alien had trouble reading the teacher's shitty-ass handwriting; but he looked over Earl's work, pointing out the errors, including a few that Earl had missed. Earl got out his notebook, taking notes as Inferno explained to him why his work was wrong. He then printed out the exam; then using his notes, he corrected it.

When he was done, he asked Inferno to look over his new work. Inferno did as he was asked, looking at each number and each letter carefully, checking it for correctness. When he was finished, Inferno told Earl that his work was correct. Now, all Earl had to do was to type out the work, in order to submit it to his teacher (online) the next day. By the time Earl finished his test and Inferno had checked his work, it was eleven o'clock at night. Earl took a break from what he was doing to look at the radar map. The remnants of Hurricane Gustav were thirty miles south of Watseka by this point. Some of the outer fringes of the storm were dropping rain on the town. The two friends decided to go outside, in order to gauge for themselves _exactly_ how hard it was raining.

As soon as he stepped outside, Inferno's fur was drenched. He took a few deep breaths of fresh Watseka air, then walked back inside, completely soaked. Earl came inside a few seconds later, his hair completely soaked. He went into the bathroom to dry his hair. He noticed that the shower curtain was _closed_. He could hear water splashing up against the shower walls, even though the shower itself wasn't on. A few seconds later, _Inferno_ came out of the shower. He'd told Earl that he went in there to shake his fur dry.

It was pushing midnight by this time, and both Earl and Inferno were getting tired. They went back in their room, laid in their bed, and flipped on the television. They watched Fox News. On their screen was some idiot talking about Iran's Nuclear Program. Inferno thought, _I saw this fucking retard talking about this same topic earlier in the week._ Sure enough, Inferno was right; as the "fucking retard" on the screen was none other than Israeli Prime Minister Moshiach Shalom. He was bitching and moaning about how Iran's Nuclear Program was a threat to his state's existence. _Will you just shut the fuck up?_ Earl thought to himself. Earl and Inferno watched this idiot speak for another two hours before getting tired of it and falling asleep.

…**Two Hours Later…**

In the quiet of a rainy Watseka night, someone walked up to the house and placed a box in the mailbox. Inside the box was a small, yellow sphere with the digits _7-7-7_ written on it. The next morning, Inferno and Earl would meet this mysterious _Experiment 7-7-7_.


	11. Welcome to Watseka, Experiment 7-7-7!

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Eleven: Welcome to Watseka; Experiment Seven-Seven-Seven!

Finished on Sunday, September 20, 2015 at 01:18:30 Central Daylight Time

…**The Next Morning…Thursday, September 4, 2008…**

Earl and Inferno woke up at six thirty in the morning. The first thing they did was go online to check the hurricanes. Earl sat at his computer and logged onto the National Hurricane Center website. Inferno sat on the desk while Earl navigated through the advisories. The radar map showed the well-defined circulation of the remnant low of Hurricane Gustav, located about twenty-five miles southwest of Watseka, moving to the northeast, toward the town. After they were done there, they grabbed their umbrella and went outside. When they got there, they both sparked up a cigarette. As they smoked their cigarettes, Earl noticed that the flag on their mailbox was up, a sign that they had mail. Earl thought to himself, _that's weird, they don't usually deliver in the middle of the night._ When they finished their cigarettes, Earl opened up the mailbox and found a small box inside. Inferno walked inside the house. Earl followed him a few seconds later. When they returned to Earl's bedroom, they opened the box. Inside was a small, yellow sphere. Written on the upper hemisphere were three sevens. Immediately, Inferno knew what he was seeing. He looked at Earl and said, "This is another experiment pod, much like the one I came from."

"Wow," Earl began, "let's see what this one looks like."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Inferno said, "Let's go outside and activate it."

The two went outside and activated the pod. From it emerged a creature. It noticed Inferno and immediately ran to him, seeking shelter against his warm fur. The three went back inside the house and into Earl's room. Once there, the creature introduced itself.

"I am experiment seven-seven-seven," it began, "I was designed to be a feminine version of experiment six-six-six; complete with all of his powers, as well as those of experiment six-two-four. Speaking of experiment six-six-six; have either of you seen him? I'd really like to meet him."

Inferno placed his hand on her shoulder and stated, "I _am_ experiment six-six-six. My name is _Inferno_ and," pointing to Earl, "this is my friend, Earl Jones."

"_You_ have a _name_?!"

"Yes," Inferno began, "Earl gave me a name so that I'd fit in around here."

"I'd like to fit in," seven-seven-seven said, "Can I have one too?"

"Yes," Earl said, "How about _Ingrid._"

"That sounds like a pretty name to me," Inferno said, "What do _you_ think?"

"I agree," seven-seven-seven replied.

Ingrid looked around. This town was completely foreign to her. After the introductions were complete, Earl and Inferno introduced Ingrid to their town's culture, explaining the ways of Watseka to her. Inferno then went over to their fridge, opened it, and grabbed three beers. He handed one to Earl, kept the second for himself, and handed the third to Ingrid. She figured out how to open the can and slowly took a sip of beer. It tasted funny to her, but she continued to drink it. She finished her beer first.

When Earl and Inferno finished their beers, Earl logged into his computer. The two experiments jumped up onto the desktop to watch what he was doing; Inferno to his right and Ingrid to his left. Earl opened up his web browser, logging onto the Watseka Community High School website. As he did so, however, he noticed that it was only seven o'clock, thus his assignments weren't there yet. He then logged onto the National Hurricane Center website again to check for new advisories. When he didn't find any, he turned off the computer.

A few seconds later, Inferno asked whether they should go outside and have a cigarette. Earl agreed, saying that it was time for Ingrid to experience it, so the three went outside. Since the rain had let up a little, they had no troubles. Earl took a cigarette out of his pack and lit it. Inferno followed suit, taking two cigarettes out of his pack. He placed the first one in his own mouth, lighting it with his claw. He then handed the second one to Ingrid, lighting it with his claw as well. He then told her to watch him smoke, and to repeat what he was doing.

Ingrid did as she was told. She sucked some smoke into her mouth, holding it there for about a second, then inhaled it. The moment that the smoke molecules made contact with her lung tissue, she felt in an instant state of relaxation; like nothing could possibly go wrong. She continued to do this for another five minutes, enjoying her relaxed state. When she finished her cigarette, she went over to Inferno. He placed his left hand on her shoulder and his right hand over her heart; and then he asked her how she felt. She told him that she felt relaxed, and that all the stress associated with being in an unfamiliar place was now gone. The three then went back in the house, having finished their cigarettes.

When they returned to Earl's room, Earl sat down at his desk. Ingrid sat down to his left, near the printer and the monitor, and Inferno sat down to his right, in the open space on the desktop. Ingrid fell asleep right where she was. Earl then opened up his web browser, checking his school's website. His work and lectures were now there, so he opened the first one up. When she heard an unfamiliar voice, Ingrid woke straight up and began to listen to what it was saying.

…**First Period English IV: Academic…**

Earl opened up the lecture file and began to listen. His teacher was going over some of the finer details of outlining a speech. He and Ingrid thought it was pretty dull and boring, so they asked Inferno to grab them a beer. He did as he was asked, grabbing three beers from their fridge. They drank their beers while listening to the shit coming from their computer; and when they finished, they had another. The teacher droned on for the better part of five minutes, completely putting Ingrid to sleep within the first ten minutes (and after two beers, of course). Inferno also fell asleep, opting to lay on Earl's lap. Earl continued to listen to the bitch drone on for another five minutes. He was bored out of his fucking mind, but he continued to listen to the bitch drone on.

When she finished her monotonous lecture, she had directed the students to the second file she'd posted. Earl closed the video lecture, saving a copy to his computer. He then downloaded the second file and opened it. It was a summary of the main points of the lecture. At the end of the file was the assignment. Mrs. Davis wanted him to finish writing the first draft of his outline to turn in on Monday, September 8, 2008.

Ingrid woke up a few minutes later to find the monotonous bitch gone. She then looked everywhere for Inferno. When she couldn't find him, she looked to Earl for help. He noticed this, looked back at her, and pointed downward, toward his lap. She looked where he was pointing; and sure enough, on his lap, was Inferno, having just awoken from a peaceful nap.

…**Second Period: Physical Education…**

Twenty-five minutes after he woke up, Inferno asked Earl what he wanted to do. Since second period was physical education, and there was no lecture (or homework) to do for that class, Earl told him that they might as well teach Ingrid about hurricanes. She was already sitting on the desk, so he opened up his web browser, logging on to the National Hurricane Center website. Sitting there, patiently waiting for the page to load, Ingrid asked Earl, "What the fuck are you two talking about?"

Earl looked at her and explained, "A hurricane is a type of storm, hundreds of times worse than what's happening outside right now. They form during the months of June through November, and can reach intensities of up to one hundred sixty-five knots."

Three minutes later, the page _finally_ loaded, and Earl was able to show Ingrid what a hurricane looked like. The storm's name was _Ike_, with maximum winds of one hundred twenty knots and minimum sea-level pressure of nine hundred thirty-seven millibars. As she listened, Earl explained that this storm was the perfect specimen of what a real hurricane looked like, with its nearly-circular wind field and all the clouds rotating around a central point, called the eye. It was located several hundred miles to the east of the United States at this point, thus was not a major threat.

Inferno was watching this exchange thinking, _this is the way he taught _me_ this stuff, and I understood it. I wonder if she _actually_ understands what he's saying._ After a few minutes, they went to look at the local weather. Earl and Inferno knew that the local forecast called for it to rain like hell all day, so they adjusted their plans accordingly. It was decided that none of them would go back outside for the rest of the day. The radar showed the remnant low of Hurricane Gustav stalled out just south of Watseka. The forecast called for it to be stalled out right over the town by noon that day (or during the middle of fourth period, in terms of Earl's school day). Ingrid looked at the picture on Earl's computer screen and thought; _this thing might just miss us, causing it to rain like hell all day, as is called for in the forecast. By the weekend, we might have a major flooding incident on our hands_. By the time she had thought this, Earl said that it was time for third period, thus stopping her from saying anything.

…**Third Period…Algebra II…**

A few seconds later, Earl logged back onto Watseka Community High School's website, opening up the lecture file for his third period class. In the beginning of the lecture, Mr. Emerson went over the answers to the homework problems he'd assigned the previous night. Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid looked over Earl's homework, checking the writing against what Mr. Emerson was saying. When they determined that all thirty-five problems were done correctly, Earl placed his assignment back in his folder and continued to listen. Mr. Emerson went on to explain the basic rules of algebra. The second thing he discussed was factoring. The number he chose to factor attracted Inferno's attention.

Mr. Emerson factored the number 666 on the board. He explained that you should always look for the largest number that goes evenly into it. In this case, the two-number factorization he wrote was 2 and 333. Then, as Mr. Emerson explained, you look at the larger number and factor _it_. So, Earl looked at 333. The first factorization that popped into his mind was 3 and 111. He then looked at 111, determining its factorization to be 3 and 37. The final thing he did was to look at 37. After determining it to be a prime number, he had the full factorization for 666. It was two (times) three-squared (times) thirty-seven.

After he finished going over this, Mr. Emerson gave the assignment, fifty-seven factoring problems, due the next day. This ended the lecture. When it was done, Earl downloaded the video lecture to his computer and downloaded the homework file from the website. He asked Ingrid to move, so that he could print it. She went over and sat on his bed while he printed the file. As the file printed, Inferno joined her. When it finished, Earl minimized the internet window, put his computer to sleep, and joined the two experiments on his bed. Since there was nothing else to do, Earl decided to do the fifty-seven problems at this time.

As Earl looked over the fifty-seven problems, Inferno and Ingrid were already writing _their_ solutions in their notebooks. The two experiments finished all fifty-seven of them in approximately fifteen seconds. Earl was finished with the first seventeen problems in about five minutes. Twenty minutes later, at the beginning of fourth period, he was completely done.

…**Fourth Period…Spanish II…**

Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid then went back over to the computer. Earl clicked on his fourth period class, opening the lecture file for the day. As he downloaded it to his computer, he opened it and began to watch it. At the beginning, Mrs. Anders was discussing the plans for the day. She then began to discuss the homework from the previous night. As she talked, Earl and the two experiments each looked over Earl's homework, checking it against what she was saying. When she was done, Inferno and Ingrid told Earl that all his work matched up with what Mrs. Anders had said. She had then directed them to page fifty-seven in the textbook, where there were seventeen sentences to translate. Earl and the two experiments then translated the seventeen sentences in about fifteen minutes. After they were done, Mrs. Anders, who had purposely stopped lecturing for fifteen minutes, began lecturing again, this time, giving them twelve new words and their Spanish translations. Earl and the two experiments wrote them down in their notebooks. When the lecture was finished, the period had ended. Mrs. Anders directed them to another file she had posted; this one with fifty sentences to translate to Spanish. Earl downloaded the file, then printed three copies of it; one for each of them. Then, he minimized his internet window and left the room, telling the experiments to wait until fifth period to do the translations.

…**Lunch Break…**

Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid went out into the kitchen to find something to eat. They all decided to cook a pizza. When it was done, Earl cut the pizza into eight pieces, keeping four for himself. He split the other four in half between Inferno and Ingrid; and the three then went back into the bedroom. As they ate, Earl flipped on the television. Inferno suggested that he turn on CNN, and Earl obliged. On the screen was some total fucking idiot talking about al-Qaeda and the War in Iraq. He was saying some totally unintelligible bullshit that none of the three friends could understand. After twenty-five minutes of this shit, they decided to turn off the TV, given that there was nothing else good to watch.

When they were finished eating, Earl went over to the fridge and grabbed three beers. Ingrid and Inferno opened theirs first, followed by Earl a few seconds later. As they drank, Inferno said, "You know, maybe we should work on those sentences during next period."

Earl said, "That's why I told you guys not to work on them just yet. That was my plan."

"That's what I thought," Ingrid began; "I knew you had a reason behind telling us that."

As she finished her statement, fifth period began.

…**Fifth Period…Study Hall…**

Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid all sat down on Earl's bed and began to work on the fifty translations. The first sentence, Inferno said in English; "What time is it?"

Earl translated it as _¿Qué hora es?_

"Good," Inferno said; "Now, _¿Cómo estás__?_"

"How are you," Earl translated.

"Excellent," Ingrid said.

This back-and-forth went on as the three continued to translate the fifty sentences from Spanish to English and vice-versa. They were done with all fifty in fewer than three minutes.

Just as they'd finished, Earl's cell phone began to ring. At first, he was having so much fun with his alien friends that he didn't notice it. Inferno then said, "Dude, I think your phone was just ringing."

"Shit," Earl began; "You're right. Maybe I should call him back."

He then dialed eleven numbers into his phone and pressed send. A minute later, a man answered, "What's up?"

"Nothing," Earl said.

"Hey," his father began, "I heard that another experiment's pod was placed inside a mailbox in town. Check ours."

"I already did, and she was in there," Earl said.

"Dammit," the man began; "I really want to meet her. I won't be home until next week, so I guess I'll see all three of you then."

"Wait," Earl began; "I thought you said tomorrow night."

"I did," his father said; "But, they just sent me on another run to the east coast."

"Oh," Earl said.

"Yeah, Sheeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiit," his father said.

"Well, we're busy doing homework," Earl said; "I guess I'll see you next week, then. Later. Love you."

"Love you, too," Mr. Jones said.

"Bye," both said in unison.

When the call was over, Earl looked over at the two experiments and said, "Prepare for hell."

…**Sixth Period…Chemistry I…**

A few seconds later, Earl and the experiments went back over to the computer. Inferno had a sad look on his face and Earl knew why. Inferno told Ingrid that he'd dreaded this period all day; and when she asked him why, he told her that this was the most boring class of Earl's day; Chemistry. Earl opened up the video lecture, downloading it while they watched it. On the computer screen, Mr. Davidson, Earl's Chemistry teacher, was discussing the seventeen homework problems he'd assigned the night before. As he went over them, as they had before, Inferno and Ingrid checked Earl's work. Mr. Davidson, in his old age, took nearly _half_ the period just going over the homework, and when he was done, Inferno and Ingrid both told Earl that his answers were correct.

After that, Mr. Davidson began the lecture, discussing the history of chemistry and some of the most important figures in scientific history. Among them were Enrico Fermi, James Joule, Lord Kelvin, and others. This is what took up the other half the period. He didn't assign any homework that night, giving the students time to study for their first exam on Thursday, September 11, 2008. Twelve minutes later, Earl closed the window and opened up the final lecture file of the day, downloading it to his computer.

…**Seventh Period…Web Page Design…**

Ms. Hall, Earl's Web Page Design teacher, began the lecture by discussing the _image_ tag. She discussed how to use the tag to insert pictures into web pages. Then, she discussed the _table_ tag and its associated sub-tags, used to insert tabulated data into web pages. The whole discussion took less than fifteen minutes. After that, she gave the students the rest of the time to practice with these five new tags.

Instead of practicing the tags, Earl decided to log onto the National Hurricane Center website. He looked at the advisory texts for Hurricanes Hanna and Ike, and then came up with an ingenious way to practice the tags he'd learned that day. He opened the skeleton-code file that he'd set up on the first day of class. He saved the new web page he was about to create under the name _Ingrid_. After this, he typed a few lines of code into the file to set up the fonts and headers of his page. Then, he typed in the _table_ tag and began to type in all the operational data for the previous year's _Tropical Storm Ingrid_. The entire table took him twenty-five minutes to code, and when he was done, he opened up his page in Internet Explorer. He closed Internet Explorer after being satisfied that his page looked the way that he wanted it to. He discovered that he already had a satellite image and an image of Ingrid's track saved to his computer, so he re-opened Notepad, and typed in the _image_ tag twice to insert the two images into his page. He then saved the text file and re-opened the page in Internet Explorer. He closed the window after giving a satisfied nod to his page. Then, he asked Inferno and Ingrid what they wanted to do now that School was done for the day.

…**After School Hours…**

Since they'd finished all of Earl's homework, Inferno and Ingrid didn't really know what to do with the rest of their day. They ended up just deciding to watch videos online for a part of that time. After that, they read more hurricane stuff. After that, the three decided to get fucked up. Earl grabbed three beers out of the fridge, handing one to each of his experiment friends. While the three friends drank their beers, Earl turned on the television again. He thought that maybe it would be more fun to watch the news when they got fucked up. When they finished their first beers, they drank another. After that, another. By six o'clock, they had each drank six beers and were all pretty fucked up. Now, the news was pretty fun to watch.

The idiot on CNN was talking about the major flooding happening in Louisiana from Hurricane Gustav. To the people at the station, he wasn't making any sense, but to Earl and the two experiments, in their drunken state, his idiotic statements didn't sound so idiotic. He didn't say _why_ the state needed help, but even in her drunken haze, Ingrid could figure it out. Hurricane Gustav had made landfall just west of New Orleans as a category two hurricane on Tuesday, September 2, 2008. There was immense flooding in the six parishes just west of the city, and some minor flooding in the city itself. The state had feared that Gustav would be the second Katrina, so they issued an evacuation order (not mandatory) for the coastal areas, including the city of New Orleans.

According to the idiot on CNN, nearly fifty percent of the people in the coastal towns and parishes west of New Orleans had evacuated, and the evacuation order in New Orleans itself was taken more seriously than was the mandatory evacuation order during Katrina, three years earlier. Even yet, people were still trapped in their homes by high waters, particularly west of the city. These were the people that, according to him, needed help.

After three or four hours of watching this, Inferno and Ingrid fell asleep, followed by Earl a few minutes later. All three would have the best night's sleep they'd had in quite a while.


	12. Back to Routine

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Twelve: Back to Routine

Finished on Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 04:18:55 Central Daylight Time

…**Friday Morning…September 5, 2008…Before School…**

Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid woke up at roughly seven o'clock in the morning. The first thing they did that morning was to gather around Earl's computer for the latest on Hurricane Ike. By this point, it was still quite a ways away from the United States coast, and not much of a threat. It had maximum winds of one hundred fifteen knots and a minimum pressure of nine hundred forty-nine millibars, making it a category four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. They wrote this down in their notebooks and left that page. They checked on the local forecast for that day and received some good news: it wasn't going to rain that day. After a while, they left the room to find something to eat; and when they were finished eating, they went outside to smoke.

When they were finished, Earl gathered his books, said goodbye to Inferno and Ingrid, and left for the bus stop. When he arrived there, Andy was waiting to talk to him. As he walked up, Andy said, "Hey, Earl; what's up?"

"Nothing," was Earl's reply.

"Hey, do you guys still want to come smoke weed with me tonight?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Oh, I'd thought you'd forgotten about the plans we'd made on Wednesday."

"Nope."

"Alright, eleven o'clock uptown, then."

"Yep."

"Hey, Earl; did you do those seventeen chemistry problems that Mr. Davidson assigned yesterday?"

"Yeah, do you want to see my paper?"

"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't hurt. I don't understand this shit at all."

"Inferno helped me do it."

"Dude, you guys really gotta help _me_ through this shit, because I don't get it at all."

"We can ask him tonight if he'd be willing to do that, then come up with a time to meet up each night to work on chemistry."

Earl and Andy concluded their conversation there and got on the bus. While the bus was in motion, Andy copied each of Earl's seventeen answers onto his worksheet. He then handed Earl back the paper. When they got to school, the two went their separate ways. Earl headed straight to his locker. When he got there, he turned his cell phone to vibrate and placed it on the top shelf, where he normally did. He then grabbed his books for first period and walked across the hall.

…**First Period…English IV Academic…**

When he walked into the room, his teacher handed him a sheet of paper. This could only mean one thing, _a spelling test._ He sat down, placed his books down on his desk, and waited patiently for his teacher to begin reciting the spelling words. When she did, Earl thought very carefully about _how_ to spell each one; and when he had it, he wrote it down. When she was finished, he began to match each word with its definition, as instructed. When he was finished, five minutes later, he handed in his paper and sat back down; beginning to daydream a short time later.

…_**Earl's dream…**_

I had just returned home from school. Inferno and Ingrid were waiting patiently for me to put my shit down, so we could check the hurricanes together. When we logged into the site, we'd found that there were not two, but _three_ tropical cyclones currently active in the Atlantic. I clicked on the first one, Tropical Storm Hanna. It was very close to hurricane status, with winds of sixty knots (a hurricane has winds of more than _sixty-five_ knots.) I then clicked on Ike, and found that it had weakened back down to a category two hurricane. The third storm, Tropical Depression Ten, only had winds of thirty knots, and was so far away from land to not be a threat. After checking the hurricanes, I had announced to Inferno and Ingrid that we had the whole of next week to ourselves. The waters around the town were supposed to rise to such levels that no one could go anywhere without a boat. Then we turned on Fox News…

…_**Back in reality land…**_

After everyone had handed in their test, Mrs. Davis had begun the lecture. She was talking about how to _deliver_ a contemporaneous speech in front of a group. After this lecture, she had each student introduce themselves to the class. The first person she called on was Earl. He rose from his seat, went up in front of the class, looked out into the sea of stares directed at him, and began with, "Hello, My name is Earl Jones. I am eighteen years old, having been born on Tuesday, August 28, 1990. I am a senior at Watseka Community High School. I've lived in Watseka for twelve years, or since 1996."

"Good job, Earl;" Mrs. Davis said.

When everyone was done with their speeches, the bell rang, dismissing them from the class. Earl walked straight to his locker, placing his things inside. He then walked the quarter-mile to the gymnasium for PE.

…**Second Period…Physical Education…**

Earl walked into the gymnasium at five minutes after nine. He went straight to the locker room, changed into his gym clothes, and then sat down in the bottom-row of the bleachers. Two minutes later, the teacher walked out of his office and took roll. Since everyone was there, he announced that they were going to the weight room that day, since the football field was wet. When they got to the weight room, Earl went straight outside, and began to walk laps around the track.

…**At Earl's house…**

Inferno and Ingrid were desperately trying to find something to do with their day. In the end, they decided to lay down in Earl's bed and take a nap. It wasn't long before the two aliens were off in dream-land.

…_**Inferno's Dream… (Continued from Earl's Dream above)…**_

…Once the television was on, there was a total idiot talking about something completely foreign to me. I looked at Earl and asked, "What the fuck is this guy talking about?"

"_Iran_ is a country in the Middle East," Earl began; then, pointing at a map, he said, "This is Iran. It is in a kind of war-of-words with the United States over its nuclear-weapons programs."

"Okay, but why should the United States Government give a shit?"

"Well," he began; "It's complicated, but long-story-short, they believe that Iran is going to use the bomb to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth; and no one, _except for the Iranians_, wants that."

"Oh," I said, "Yeah, that wouldn't be good; and it would be the closest thing to genocide that's ever been known."

"_You know what genocide is?!_"

"Yeah, I've heard of it. My kind was almost the victim of it back in 2003."

We then continued to listen to this man speak about this nuclear stuff for another twenty minutes. It was beginning to make more sense to me why Iran should _not_ be allowed to acquire a nuclear bomb. The only problem that I could see was that the Israeli government did not (to my satisfaction) _prove_ that Iran was actually seeking a bomb. My thought was, _if you're going to send your nation's top leader out in front of the whole world to try to convince them that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, you might want to have a little more than dubious intelligence for evidence_.

I then looked over at Ingrid, who was just sitting there absorbing this information. I could tell that she was thinking the same thing I was. I asked her what she felt about this issue, and she replied that she thought he was full of shit. Then, after another hour, we turned off this channel…

…_**Ingrid's Dream… (Continued from Inferno's Dream)…**_

After about twenty-five minutes, Earl decided to turn on another news channel. I'd heard Inferno talking about this one before, enough to know that it was called CNN. I'd noticed that the time was displayed at the bottom left corner of the screen. I looked, and it said five thirty. In the center of the screen was what looked like a talking head, not really attached to anything. It was the President of the United States, Terry Weakly. He was talking about the need to not focus so much attention on Iran and more on hunting down something called _al-Qaeda_. I asked Earl, "What is this _al-Qaeda_?"

"_al-Qaeda_," he began; "is an international terrorist organization headed by a total idiot named Osama bin Laden."

"It doesn't sound like the name came from English," I said.

"It didn't," he began, "it came from a language spoken widely in the Middle East, called Arabic."

The man on the television continued to speak, mostly about what _al-Qaeda_ was and what they had done to the United States in the past. It began to make much more sense, and I began to think, _yeah, they need to just shoot that bin Laden motherfucker_. We finally turned this channel off at around six thirty.

After this, we watched the weather channel for another hour, finally turning off the television at just after seven thirty. Then, Earl, Inferno, and I gathered around Earl's computer as he logged onto the National Hurricane Center's website for the final time that night. Ike had regained some strength, and was now a category three. Tropical Depression Ten had gained some strength, and was now Tropical Storm _Josephine_. Then, we went outside for a smoke…

…_**Back in Reality-Land…**_

Earl walked back into the weight room after forty minutes of circling the track. He was proud of himself, because he'd managed to circle it five times during that interval. After going back inside, he'd walked with his class back inside the school building, changed back into his street clothes, and sat down in the bleachers, waiting for the bell to ring. When it did, he walked out of the gym, the whole quarter-mile back to his locker. He entered his combination, opened the locker, and grabbed his materials for third period. Just as he walked into the classroom, the tardy bell rang.

…**Third Period…Algebra II…**

When Earl took his seat, Mr. Emerson began the lecture about factoring binomials. It was very boring, but Earl managed to stay awake and pay attention, as Mr. Emerson presented the distributive law in reverse. Using this method, Mr. Emerson told the class, a binomial like 2_x _\+ 4 turns into the factored form 2 (_x _\+ 2). Some of the other examples presented were things like 6_x_ \+ 100 = 2 (_x_ \+ 50) and 45_x_ – 25 = 5 (9_x_ – 5). After twenty-five more minutes of lecture, Mr. Emerson assigned fifty-six problems over this from the textbook, and said that the next discussion would be over factoring _tri_nomials, a prelude to a new way to simplify rational expressions. Then, the bell rang, and Earl walked to his locker. He placed his algebra books inside, then grabbed his Spanish books. Then he walked down the hall towards his Spanish classroom.

…**Fourth Period…Spanish II…**

As soon as Earl took his seat, he began to daydream. All of his daydreaming, (as well as Inferno's and Ingrid's) had been about what they were going to do between the time he got home from school and the time they met Andy uptown.

…_**Earl's Dream… (Continued from Ingrid's Dream above)…**_

After we finished our cigarettes, it was time for dinner. I decided that we should have a pizza before we went uptown. It would be another hour-and-a-half before the pizza even got into the oven, however, because we'd just sat there in the dining room laughing our asses off at nothing, really. After the pizza finished cooking, we each ate our respective number of slices. When we finished eating, it was nine o'clock, two hours before we were supposed to meet Andy uptown…

…_**Back in Reality…**_

Earl had been daydreaming for nearly half the period, when suddenly he was awoken by someone making a joke in Spanish. One of his classmates had said the made-up word "gato-guesas;" which, according to that student, meant "cat-burgers." While Earl didn't find the joke funny, almost everyone else in the room did, including Mrs. Anders. This joke was immediately followed by another student jokingly saying, "Esta clase es torocaca," which meant, "this class is bullshit." That student got a detention for uttering the dirty word "torocaca" in class. Everyone, including Earl, laughed their asses off at that. _"Inferno and Ingrid are gonna love this shit when I tell them tonight,"_ Earl thought to himself. After all the fun, the bell rang, dismissing the students to lunch. Earl walked back to his locker, placing his books inside. He then checked his phone for new messages; and after finding none, he placed the phone back in its place and walked to lunch.

…**Lunch…**

Earl got in line to get his lunch. He was in the pizza line with four of his friends, who were all standing behind him. After they got their trays and paid for their lunches, they all sat down at a table and began to eat. While they ate, one of them piped up, "Hey Earl, I heard you're gonna get fucked up tonight. Is it true?"

"Yeah," Earl said.

"What the fuck, man, did you guys forget about us?"

"No," Earl began, "we just wanted it to be me, Andy, Inferno, and Ingrid."

"Who's Ingrid," another friend asked.

"She's another alien, like Inferno. She just came to us yesterday, and I think she already likes Inferno. She hasn't yet said if she does, but I get that vibe off of her."

"That's cool, dude," he said, "Inferno's about to get himself some pussy."

"I don't know about _that_, but they're really close friends."

"Dude, don't deny it. If she likes him, like turns to love, then he scores."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, but I don't think they're up for fucking at this point in their relationship. They just met, and I think it's gonna take some time for them to reach that point. I'd say he might score by the end of the school year, if not later than that."

Their third friend then says, "Hey, Earl, what the fuck would your dad say if they were to fuck?"

"I don't know, and Inferno and I both agree that we don't really _want_ to know."

The fourth guy in the group then said, "Dudes, y'all makin' me sick over here with this talk of aliens fuckin'. Do you think you could continue this conversation some other time?"

"I'm getting pretty fucking sick of it myself," Earl said.

The four friends continue to eat, finishing their pizzas right as the bell rings. As they turn in their trays, they each walk out of the cafeteria and to their lockers. Earl grabs his books from third period and sixth period, and walks upstairs to the study hall room.

…**Fifth Period…Study Hall…**

As Earl sat in his seat, he pulled out his algebra book and began to do the fifty-six problems from his homework assignment. He finished the first twenty-five problems in roughly five minutes. After that, he began to daydream, all the while working on the remaining thirty-one problems.

…_**Earl's Dream… (Continued from above)…**_

Inferno, Ingrid, and I sat in the living room talking for the next fifteen minutes. We discussed what we would do with Andy tonight. In much the same way I'd taught Inferno how to smoke weed, I now had to share this with Ingrid as well.

I began with, "When you get high, you don't feel like doing anything except relaxing. Trust me, I've done it."

"Exactly how does one get high," Ingrid asked.

"You have to smoke the substance. The only one I've ever done (or ever care to do) is called _marijuana_."

"Okay. Exactly how do you smoke this _marijuana_?"

"I'll explain it to you. Please listen carefully and memorize what I say. You will need to know this for when you try it."

"Okay," Ingrid said.

I began the explanation with, "First, you need to know what kind of supplies you will need to smoke marijuana. First, you need something to smoke it out of. It can be anything, from a simple metal cylinder, like a piece of TV antenna, to something like a glass pipe with a bowl at the end."

"Okay," she said.

"You break up the marijuana into pieces, and then pack it into the smoking apparatus."

"Okay, I think I understand that, in theory."

"Then, you place the smoking apparatus up to your lips."

"All right, that seems pretty self-explanatory."

"Now, this is the really important part. After you light the smoking apparatus, you suck the smoke into your lungs. How much smoke you suck in depends on how long you can suck for. The more smoke you get, the more fucked up you get. Another important thing to know is that you have to hold the smoke in your lungs for as long as you can. It is this that gets you fucked up. The longest I've been able to hold it in is thirty seconds."

"I take it you've done this before."

"Yes, I have. Now, after you suck in the smoke and get fucked up, you put the smoking apparatus down and savor the feeling. When I smoke weed, I feel relaxed, and I really don't want to do anything."

"That sounds intriguing."

"After a few minutes, perhaps an hour, you repeat the process to get fucked up again. That's the ins and outs of smoking weed."

Ingrid then asked, "When can I try it?"

"In about an hour," I replied.

After teaching Ingrid the ins and outs of smoking weed, Inferno and I discussed what we would do with the rest of next week, given that school was canceled (due to the forecasted flooding). He thought we should buy some weed from Andy to smoke between the three of us during the week. I felt that we should not let tonight dictate the rest of next week. Ingrid didn't really feel like doing much of anything. She wanted to use the week to bond with Inferno and I, so we decided to let her try. After a few more minutes of discussion, it was time to leave, going uptown to meet up with Andy.

…_**Back in reality…**_

Earl sat there in Study Hall working on the algebra problems he'd been assigned. His dream had lasted for twelve minutes, during which time he'd finished fifteen problems. Sitting there, and not off in la-la land, he finished all but one of the sixteen remaining problems. Just as the bell rang for sixth period, he finished the last problem. He was now officially done with the algebra homework. He packed up his books, and walked across the hall to his chemistry class.

…**Sixth Period…Chemistry I…**

When Earl walked into the classroom, Mr. Davidson handed him a stack of papers. Today was lab day, and Earl went over to his partner's seat, writing his name on his paper as he walked. His partner, a sixteen-year-old Hispanic girl named Rosa Morales, greeted him and then they got busy working on their lab. Today, they were experimentally determining the molar mass of Hexane gas. It was a really easy lab, in which their three-trial average molar mass was ninety-two grams-per-mole. When they finished, they talked out their conclusions, wrote their names on their report, and turned the paper in to Mr. Davidson. Then, Earl sat in his seat and waited patiently for the bell to ring. When it finally did, he booked it out of there, and returned to his locker. He opened it, placed his books in there, and walked the couple of meters into his last class of the day.

…**Seventh Period…Web Page Design…**

When Earl sat in his seat, the first thing he did was to log into the National Hurricane Center website, checking on the hurricanes. He did this, and found something rather unexpected. Ike was a category two, Hanna had made landfall in North Carolina as a tropical storm, and Tropical Depression Ten had become a tropical storm, named Josephine. After checking this stuff out, he plugged his thumb drive into the computer, opening the page he'd designed the previous afternoon. He then waited for the teacher to begin the lecture. On this day, however, there was no lecture. Ms. Hall just wanted the students to continue practicing their HTML tags. With the page open, Earl began to type more tags into it, adding background color and changing the fonts around a little bit. He moved the pictures to the center of the page, then he worked online to find more satellite images. He wanted a satellite image to correspond with each of the advisory times. Eventually, he found some, adding them into the table with the _td_ and _image_ tags. By the time he was done putting the finishing touches on his page, the final bell rang. He saved his work, closed it, unplugged his zip drive, turned off the computer, and left the room. He went straight to his locker, grabbing his lab and his English stuff, and walked straight out the door.

…**On the way Home…**

As Earl walked home, several people stopped him to say hi. All he did was say hi to them, then he was on his merry way. A few minutes later, at the corner of Third and Mulberry, one of his friends stopped him to give him a cigarette, which he smoked the rest of the way home. He arrived a few minutes later, at just after four.


	13. Blazing Blunts

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Thirteen: Blazing Blunts

Finished on Wednesday, February 17, 2016 at 03:36:13 Central Standard Time

…**Later that night…**

Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid left their house at ten o'clock sharp. They took the long route to get uptown. After crossing the train tracks just around the curve from the house, Inferno broke the silence with, "So, you said Andy has some pretty good weed. What do you mean by _pretty good_? Isn't it all good?"

"Yeah, but this is the top-of-the-line shit. This shit has you off in la-la land in four minutes or less," Earl said.

"Fucking sweet!"

"Yeah, I thought you might like that."

"So," Ingrid asked, "What's with these plans?"

"We're gonna get super fucked up tonight," Inferno said.

"What's fucked up?"

"It's getting really drunk or high, according to Earl."

"Yeah," Earl said, "You've already been fucked up. Remember when you drank those four beers at my house yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's getting drunk, one of the two forms of fucked up."

"What about cigarettes?"

"Those don't really get you fucked up. It causes kind of a rush, but it won't cause what you're about to feel."

…**Town Center Square…Five minutes later…**

When Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid got to Town Center Square at exactly eleven o'clock, Andy was already sitting there in his car, waiting for them to arrive. Earl and Andy said their hellos, then Andy looked down at the two black-furred creatures standing next to Earl. He asked Earl who they were.

Pointing at Inferno, Earl replied, "This is my friend Inferno. This is the one I was telling you about last week."

"Who's the other one?"

"Oh, this is the latest addition to our little circle. She's experiment number seven-seven-seven, but we just call her Ingrid."

"Well, they both look really cool. What can they do?"

Inferno was the first to respond with, "Well, Andy, I have many unique powers. I am bulletproof, fireproof, and can think faster than a supercomputer. I can also lift objects three thousand times my own size."

"Fucking sweet," was all Andy could think of to say.

"Well," Ingrid began, "I don't really know how to accurately summarize my powers. There are just so many of them. I have many of the same powers as Inferno; and in addition, I'm a really good singer."

"Again," Andy began, "fucking cool."

"Yeah, now can we go smoke these two the fuck up," Earl asked.

"Yeah, let's go. I really wanna smoke some weed," Andy replied.

Earl, Ingrid, and Inferno jumped into Andy's car and the four made their way eastbound on U.S. Route 24. When they got to Wal-Mart, they made a right-hand turn onto Illinois Route 1, heading south. At the first county road they came to, Andy made the left-hand turn, taking them straight into the middle of a cornfield. When they got there, Andy rolled four blunts, handing one to Earl, one to Inferno, and the third to Ingrid. Andy kept the fourth blunt for himself.

Andy, Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid all lit their blunts separately. After three seconds of sucking in smoke, they removed the blunts from their mouths. Holding the smoke in for about five seconds, they then inhaled it, holding in in their lungs for fifty seconds. Exhaling a huge cloud of smoke that completely filled Andy's car, the two experiments immediately felt fucked up. Earl and Andy were still somewhat sober. As the two experiments put their blunts out, Andy and Earl decided to continue smoking. They smoked four or five more blows, completely filling the car with smoke each time. During this time, Inferno and Ingrid were sleeping. When they woke up, Andy and Earl were still smoking, now on their eighth blow each. Inferno and Ingrid relit their blunts and each smoked seven more blows before finishing their blunts. After three more blows each, Andy and Earl also finished their blunts.

…**Five hours later…**

After smoking a shit-ton of weed, Andy, Earl, Ingrid, and Inferno began to talk shit amongst each other. Earl and Andy mostly talked shit about people they hated at school, calling one kid a "retard" fifteen times in five minutes.

Earl then said, "Yeah, he wanted to pick a fight with me at school one day back in the sixth grade."

"Isn't that the fag who grabbed your dick in the bathroom one day back in seventh grade," Andy asked.

"Yeah," Earl began, "he thought it would be really funny to then call me a fag in front of the whole goddamn school."

"Didn't you fuck him up after he tried to fuck with you at your locker last week?"

"No, I turned the other way and walked to class. I wasn't about to get suspended over _that_ motherfucker."

When the two terminated their conversation, Earl turned back to find Inferno and Ingrid passed the fuck out in the back seat. They were facing opposite directions and were on opposite ends of the car. Earl and Andy then rolled four more blunts, keeping two for themselves. They then prepared to smoke _even more_ weed.

…**Twenty-five minutes later…**

When Inferno and Ingrid woke up, Andy handed them each _another_ blunt, and all four lit them. They began talking again, this time, while getting high.

Andy began the conversation, saying, "So, Inferno, how are you liking Watseka?"

"It's better than being stuck in a one-inch diameter experiment pod for two years," he replied.

"Yeah," Ingrid said, "I hated it too, but now that I'm free in Watseka, I have a _far_ better life and some new friends."

"It would make sense for you two to be happy here. You're making friends with Earl's friends."

"Yeah, we haven't met a whole lot of them. You're the first," Inferno said.

Earl, noticing that they left someone out, said, "Hey guys, I've got a girlfriend. Would you like to meet her tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Inferno said, "I'd like to meet her; Ingrid?"

'Yeah," Ingrid echoed, "Me too."

"Great, I'll text her in the morning," Earl said, "She smokes weed as well, and I might ask her to bring some to the house."

The four friends took one last drag off of their blunts, terminating their conversation as the car rolled back into town. Since Andy knew where Earl lived, he offered to drive Earl and the experiments back there. They accepted, and before they knew it, they were rolling into Earl's driveway.

…**Fifteen minutes later…**

Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid walked into the house after smoking a cigarette to find it exactly as they'd left it. They walked into Earl's bedroom, still pretty high, and sat down at his computer. Inferno and Ingrid sat down in their usual perches, while Earl sat in his desk chair and logged into the computer. As Windows loaded, he looked at the clock. It was just after midnight. He then looked back at the computer screen, and once he saw that it was fully loaded, he opened his web browser. Once in, he checked on the local forecast. Finding nothing new, he checked on the hurricanes. He found that Ike had weakened to a category two, Hanna was still a tropical storm, and Josephine was completely fizzled out. After thirty more minutes of looking at this, the three went to bed.

…**8:00…The Next Morning…**

Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid awoke the next morning with a terrible headache. Inferno was the first to note that they had gotten _really_ fucked up the night before. For him, though, it was a really enjoyable experience. Ingrid felt the same way. She'd never really thought about getting _that_ fucked up before. She and Inferno rose from the bed and went outside for some air. Inferno looked out across the street, then back at Ingrid, and said, "I think the rain on Thursday really fucked up the river."

"I can see that. I think there's gonna be a major flood coming. I overheard Earl talking with Andy about it last night" Ingrid stated.

"Yeah…" Inferno began, looking at Ingrid all weird, "He mentioned that they canceled his classes for the whole week because of it. I wonder what we can do during that time."

"Well, I don't really know him that well yet," Ingrid began; "I think that _I_ can use the week to try to get to know him a little bit better. That said, I'm not really sure what _you_ can do."

"Well, I thought about sleeping in every day. There's nothing really else for an experiment to do around here."

"That sounds like a good idea."

"Hey, Ingrid; I thought I caught you giving me a strange look last night; the kind of look that people in love give each other. If that's really the way you feel, then in order for this relationship to work, we need to take it slow. We can't fall in love too quickly, or else people aren't gonna believe it."

"I agree; and yes, I do feel that way about you. Do you feel that way about me?"

"I do. I don't think we should tell anyone, though; at least not until we've gotten to know each other a little better."

"Yes, that's true; but I think we should at least tell Earl," Ingrid said.

"Alright, we'll tell him, but I wouldn't tell any of his friends."

While the two experiments discussed their relationship's status, Earl decided to check the weather. While it wasn't raining, there was supposed to be a major flood, and he wanted to know if there'd been any warnings posted. He opened his web browser and logged onto the site. He noticed two things: first, there were a multitude of watches and warnings from Illinois to the East Coast on this particular storm; and second, there was a _flash flood warning_ issued for Iroquois County, including the City of Watseka. The warning listed Sunday, September 7, 2008 as the earliest date for flooding to begin. When he was done online, he picked up his cell phone and began to text his girlfriend.

As Earl was texting his girlfriend, Inferno came into the room to grab his cigarettes. He then promptly left, leaving Earl there to text his girlfriend in private. When his phone fucked up a word (autocorrect), he yelled out "DAMN YOU AUTO CORRECT!" He yelled it so loud that Inferno came running into the room, thinking that Earl was hurt. Earl assured him that he was fine and that it was just his "fucking phone" that was acting stupid. Inferno then left the room and resumed smoking cigarettes outside with Ingrid.

Earl then resumed texting his girlfriend. She had texted him, "Well, I really hope that was an autocorrect fail."

"It was," he texted her back.

"Okay. What the hell are you guys doing," she texted him, implying that she knew about Inferno.

"Well, Inferno and Ingrid are outside smoking cigarettes; and I was just checking the weather," he texted back.

"Okay. Wait, who's Ingrid," she texted. She sounded pretty pissed.

"She's another creature like Inferno. She came to us on Thursday and I think she's falling for Inferno."

"She sounds pretty cool. When can I meet her?"

"If you want to come over now, I've got plenty of time."

"Cool. I've got some weed. Do you guys wanna smoke it with me?"

"You'll have to ask Inferno and Ingrid when you get here. I've got no problem with it."

"Yeah. Cool. I'll be there in five minutes."

"All right. I'll see you then. Bye."

"Bye, baby."

When Earl finished his text tag with his girlfriend, he grabbed _his_ pack of cigarettes and went outside, joining Inferno and Ingrid on the porch. Five minutes later, just as she said she would, Earl's girlfriend pulled up in her green 2008 Ford Focus. When she walked up the front steps, Earl rose from his seat to greet her. He took her by the hand, pointed at Ingrid, and said, "This is Ingrid, Experiment seven-seven-seven."

"Hello," Earl's girlfriend said to Ingrid, "my name is Shelly Daniels and I am Earl's love."

"Hello, Shelly," Ingrid said, "I assume you know Inferno already."

"Yes, I do. He and Earl stopped by my house last week. Earl got high as fuck, I might add," Shelly said.

"Yes, he did," Inferno said, "I watched as the two love birds got _really_ fucked up."

"Hey, Inferno and Ingrid, Do you guys want to smoke some weed right now," Shelly asked.

"Yeah," they both said in unison.

After another few minutes, the four friends went to Earl's back yard. Shelly already had four blunts rolled. She handed one to Earl, one to Inferno, and the third to Ingrid; keeping the fourth one for herself. She and Earl lit their blunts first, followed by Inferno a few seconds later. Inferno then reached for Ingrid's blunt. He used his red-hot claw to light it. The four then sucked in smoke for thirty seconds. They each removed their blunt from their mouth and held the smoke in their lungs for sixty seconds. They each then exhaled a huge cloud of smoke. All four immediately felt fucked up. They each put out their blunts and savored the feeling.

Half an hour later, all four relit their blunts and repeated the process six times each. After each time, they felt even more fucked up than the first. Inferno and Ingrid were both, by that point, off in la-la land. By noon, all four of them were off in la-la land.


	14. Floods

Inferno: Experiment 666

Chapter Fourteen: Floods

Finished on Thursday, May 12, 2016 at 16:29:30 Central Daylight Time

…**Kauai…Noon Central Daylight Time…Saturday, September 6, 2008…**

It was a pristine day on the small Hawaiian island of Kauai. Most of the experiments were doing that one thing that made them happy; working in their one true place. Experiment four-nine-eight was sitting alone at her desk, trying to figure out what being a "good experiment" meant. Since she was activated on Friday, May 13, 2005, she had trouble grasping the concept. As she sat there, thinking to herself, _I wonder what I can do._ She looked over her maps, not really finding that one place that she could make a flood occur. She thought real hard, still trying to figure out what she could flood, going over the numerous places she'd caused floods over the past nearly three years.

Nearly half an hour later, Floods had decided that she'd cause a _third_ flood in Watseka, Illinois. She'd flooded the town twice before, on Wednesday, January 9, 2008 and on Wednesday, February 6, 2008. She felt that the town was due for a third. She then thought of a way to hide her involvement from Lilo and Stitch, knowing that they'd be pissed off if they found out she was involved. She came up with her idea after an hour of thought, but still, in the back of her mind, she felt that it wouldn't work, and that they'd still manage to find out.

Floods then checked the local forecast for Watseka. It was only then that her fears were alleviated somewhat, when she found out that there were _already_ flash-flood warnings raised for the City of Watseka and surrounding areas. It was then that she decided to will the flood to begin at midnight on Sunday night, Watseka time.

…**Watseka, Illinois…Three o'clock in the afternoon Central Daylight Time…**

After spending the whole morning hanging out in their backyard, Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid decided to go inside and take a break. They'd just smoked _a lot_ of weed and needed to rest for a bit. After going inside, Earl sat down at his desk, logged into his computer, and started watching videos on Facebook. Inferno and Ingrid fell asleep on Earl's bed, and when they woke up an hour later, Earl was still sitting at his computer watching videos on Facebook. They joined him, watching a video of the Israeli Prime Minister blabbing on about Iran's nuclear program. He then "shared" the video with his friends, with the comment, "This guy is a motherfucking retard!" After a few minutes of silence, Ingrid said, "You know, last night was fun, and this morning was even more fun, but what are we going to do with the rest of the day?"

"What do you want to do with it?" Earl asked.

"I don't know, how about messing around on Facebook."

"_Or_," Inferno interjected, "we could work on some more of Earl's homework."

"Relax, guys," Earl said, "We can smoke more weed later. I bought some off of Andy last night and some more off of Shelly this morning. We have enough weed to last us the whole of the next _four_ weeks."

After further discussion, Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid decided to fuck around on Facebook for a few more hours. By the time Earl had logged into his Facebook, he'd noticed that Shelly had texted him. He ignored this text and continued to look at his computer. Ingrid saw something at the top of the page that intrigued her. She pointed it out and asked Earl and Inferno about it. Earl explained that what she was pointing at was called a "status update." Earl's friends were good at posting these, and most, if not all of them, were about smoking weed and getting drunk. While on the page, Earl posted his own status update. After posting it, he scrolled down the page, looking for more funny videos that the three could watch.

After five minutes, he found one. It was a status update by Fox News Channel, and when Earl clicked on it, a person said that there was _major flooding_ likely in portions of the Midwest during the next week. _Please tell us something that we didn't already know,_ they all thought. He continued to scroll down the page until he was bored. Then he logged out of the site.

…**Back on Kauai…6:00 PM Central Daylight Time…**

Floods was sitting at her desk, thinking about her decision to flood Watseka a third time. She had willed Hurricane Ike's remnants to move over Watseka during the day on Sunday, September 14, 2008. During this time, she'd also planned to cause major floods over vast portions of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio; moderate ones over parts of Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, and Wisconsin; and minor ones over portions of the Northeastern United States; all either directly or indirectly related to Hurricane Ike. _That's a lot of rain_, she thought to herself.

About fifteen minutes later, she heard a knock at her door. When she answered it, she found Lilo and Stitch on the other side. She greeted them and invited them in. Upon entering, Lilo said, "Hey, Floods, what's up?"

"Not much," she replied.

"Hey, Floods," Stitch said, "Have you heard about the hurricane that's about to slam south Texas?"

"Yeah, I have. Do you think there's going to be flooding in its wake?"

"Yeah," Lilo said, "that's what we wanted to discuss."

"Well, I don't really know what to say. The flooding could be caused by any number of things. My powers alone don't really explain what's happening over there."

"That's precisely the problem. You have the power to cause floods, and the government has taken notice of this. They want us to assure them that Ike is not _your_ fault."

"Tell them that I have to _will_ there to be a flood. That's the only way that _I_ can directly cause a flood."

"We did, twice; but they want more evidence that you're not causing problems."

"Well, I really don't know what I can say or do to reassure them that it's really not me that's causing this…wait…has Ike even made landfall yet?"

"No, it will make landfall later tonight."

"I couldn't even will a flood to occur there if the ingredients necessary to cause one aren't in place; and by the time they are, I'll be asleep."

"Okay, that's good enough for me. I'll have to let the president know."

Lilo and Stitch said goodbye to Floods and left her home at roughly 10:00 PM Central Daylight Time. After they left, Floods breathed a huge sigh of relief. She knew that what she'd told them was total bullshit, and that what they didn't know wasn't going to kill them.

…**Back in Watseka…11:00 PM Central Daylight Time…**

Earl, Ingrid, and Inferno had just climbed into bed. Instead of sleeping, they turned on the television instead. On the Weather Channel, some guy was discussing Hurricane Ike. In addition to the threat of Ike, there was a stalled-out cold front over the Central United States; the remnants of Pacific Tropical Storm Lowell, causing heavy rainfall over vast portions of the region. Only after another hour of watching this, did they go to sleep.

**...Kauai…Midnight Central Daylight Time…Sunday, September 7, 2008…**

Lilo and Stitch sat at their desk watching the Weather Channel. Neither one of them was satisfied with what Floods had told them earlier in the night, so they decided to monitor the situation. Just when they thought it was safe to go to bed, Hurricane Ike made landfall in South Texas. It was just after two in the morning.

…**Watseka…Sunday, September 7, 2008…Four hours later…**

As Earl, Ingrid, and Inferno slept, the rain outside intensified. Also, the wind began to pick up. As Ike moved further northeastward, its rains and winds affected an incredibly large area. By six, it had moved into southwestern Missouri, having already dumped copious amounts of rain on East Texas, Western Louisiana, and all of Arkansas. After dumping immense amounts of rain in Missouri, by noon, Ike was just crossing the Mississippi River into Southwestern Illinois. Its outermost rain bands had just moved into the Watseka area when Earl, Ingrid, and Inferno woke up at around 12:30 PM.

When the three woke up, they were greeted by the sound of the heavy rain hitting their house. They went outside under the pavilion where they all went to smoke when it rained. When they lit up their cigarettes, they looked up at the sky while exhaling the smoke. The rain was coming down even faster now, and the winds were at least fifty knots. Five minutes later, when they were finished, they went back inside and turned on the computer. Earl logged into the National Weather Service Chicago website and pulled up the local radar map. Looking at it, Inferno said, "It looks like we're in for one _hell_ of a day."

"Yes, what can we do with it?" Ingrid asked.

"Well," Inferno began, "we could always sit in here and watch TV. There ain't nothing better to do."

"Or," Earl added, "We could smoke another cigarette while watching it rain."

"No, I don't feel like going back outside," Inferno said.

As soon as the debate ended, the three decided to sit there at the computer and fuck around on Facebook. Once Earl logged into his account, he noticed that Andy had posted a video of the four of them smoking out a couple of nights before. He clicked on the video and it began to play. The first person visible was Earl, smoking a big blow. Moving on from there, they saw Ingrid smoking a bigger blow, then passing the fuck out. The video ended with Inferno outdoing both of them, sucking in smoke for a full minute and holding it in for an equal amount of time. Then, he blew it out and subsequently passed the fuck out.

After watching the video, Earl commented on it. He said, "Dude, Inferno said that he didn't even remember passing the fuck out like that." They then moved on down the page. As they scrolled down the page, Inferno asked Earl what the rest of the videos on the page were about. As they looked at each one, they noticed that about half of them were selfie videos of Earl's friends smoking weed and getting drunk. Once they reached the bottom of the page, Earl opened another tab, pulling up the National Hurricane Center's website. When the page finally loaded, though, his computer beeped, meaning that he had an unread email in his inbox.

When he opened it, he noticed that Andy had replied to his comment with, "I didn't think he would… that's why I posted this." Looking over at Inferno, Earl noticed that he was beginning to power up, indicating to Earl that he was getting pissed off. He called Inferno over, and upon his arrival, Earl noticed that he wasn't mad, but rather, sad. Indeed, Inferno looked like he was going to cry. Earl asked him why he was sad.

"I remember smoking that ginormous blow, but I just have no memory of passing out," Inferno replied.

…**Three hours later…**

Around three o'clock, Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid went outside to smoke a cigarette. After smoking the cigarettes, the three returned to Earl's bedroom. They didn't stay there for long, though. Earl pulled three five-inch blunts out of his desk drawer, and motioned for Inferno and Ingrid to follow him back outside. Once outside, he handed Inferno and Ingrid each a blunt, keeping the third one for himself. They sparked up the blunts, Ingrid first, then Inferno, and finally Earl. Like before, Inferno sucked in smoke for a full minute, holding it in for an equal amount of time. This time, however, when he blew it out, he didn't pass out. He repeated the process until the blunt was gone. Earl and Ingrid did the same, and when they were finished, they returned to Earl's bedroom. They each sat in their normal places at Earl's desk. Earl pulled up the National Hurricane Center website again, reading the latest advisories on Hurricane Ike. The storm's eye was only a few miles away from Watseka at this time, which, as Earl had told Inferno, he had already figured out. While they were outside smoking weed, they had noticed that the wind and rain were more intense than at any previous point in the day.

…**Watseka…6:00 PM (Central Daylight Time)…Sunday, September 7, 2008…**

The eye of Hurricane Ike is now over Watseka. The rains have decreased in intensity and the wind is virtually non-existent. Earl decided that it was a good time to go outside and smoke a cigarette. As they went outside, the rain began to fall once again. This, however, was not going to stop them from smoking their cigarettes. They stayed outside for a good twenty minutes, then returned inside and logged back onto Facebook. Earl clicked on the first video he saw, noticing that it was one he'd never seen before. He, Inferno, and Ingrid sat down at the desk and watched the video. One of Earl's friends decided to make a video of himself smoking weed and posted it to Facebook. When the video was finished, Inferno climbed down off of the desk into Earl's lap, where he subsequently fell asleep.

While Inferno slept, Earl and Ingrid continued to watch pot-smoking videos on Facebook. Andy had posted a new one of himself getting really fucked up and making some political rants. Ingrid didn't know what the fuck he was talking about. Earl understood the words that he was using, so he explained it to Ingrid the best that he could. When he was satisfied that she understood what was going on, he moved onto the next video.

By this point, Inferno had awoken to find Earl and Ingrid still watching videos on Facebook. He was still feeling a little buzz, so he went back to sleep; while Earl and Ingrid continued watching videos. Ingrid noticed this, and placed her hand over Inferno's heart. Earl followed suit. He noticed that Inferno's heart rate was a lot higher than what it had been earlier that day. He knew immediately that it was because of the weed, but he also knew that he would wake up.

Earl clicked on another video. This one was from his girlfriend, Shelly. She had posted a selfie video that she'd made while smoking weed the night before. As she smoked, she was talking about how much of a rush it would be to get drunk at the same time, as well as talking about wanting to spend time with Earl, Inferno, and Ingrid. Ingrid watched, telling Earl that she'd had fun hanging out with Shelly the previous morning. Four more hours and twenty-five more pot-themed videos later, Earl and Ingrid got tired of watching videos and logged off of Facebook.

At about this time, Inferno had just awoken for the second time. This time, however, he jumped back into his normal position on Earl's desk. Now, he felt fine and was ready to rejoin Earl and Ingrid, doing whatever it was that they were doing online. Earl told him about the videos that they had been watching, and asked him what he thought they should do next. Inferno took one look at the clock and told Earl that he thought they should get to bed. Earl said he thought they should smoke another cigarette before that, though. Earl, Ingrid, and Inferno then went outside for their final cigarette of the night. They lit up, smoking a few drags, then noticed that the wind and rain still had not let up. When they finished their cigarettes, they went inside and went to bed, and would have the best night's sleep they had in a while.

…**END OF THE FIRST ARC…**


End file.
